342 



Cherry Leaf Scorch. 



[SEPT., 



Outside of Kent the disease seems little known ; Mr. 

 Carruthers has recorded* it on a wild cherry tree in Somerset- 

 shire, and I have seen it on sweet cherries in a garden at Cole- 

 man's Hatch, Sussex. 



Remedies. — The fungus depends absolutely for the con- 

 tinuance of its existence on fresh infection taking place in the 

 spring by means of the spores scattered from the fruit-con- 

 ceptacles of the fungus on the dead leaves hanging on the tree„ 

 The spawn of the fungus stops short at the base of the leaf- 

 stalk and never enters the branch, so that no wood becomes 

 diseased. If, therefore, during autumn or winter the dead 

 leaves hanging on the affected trees are collected and destroyed 

 the orchard stands perfectly free from disease again. 



Another way of dealing with the disease is to prevent the 

 infection of the leaves in the spring by covering them with 

 a coating of some fungicide. This method of dealing with the 

 disease by spraying, which, so far as I know, had not hitherto 

 been tried, was employed in an experiment last year. Thirteen 

 trees were chosen standing in the^middle of an affected orchard 

 belonging to Mr. A. Pearson, of Pevington, Pluckley, Kent. The 

 trees in this orchard had been severely attacked by cherry leaf 

 scorch since 1903. Using the Wye College spraying apparatus 

 (consisting of the Goulds Manufacturing Company's " Pomona " 

 pump, fitted with the " Seneca " nozzle supplied by the same 

 firm), two thorough applications of Bordeaux mixture, in a fine 

 misty spray, were given to these thirteen trees. The Bordeaux 

 mixture was made according to the following formula : copper 

 sulphate, 8 lb. ; freshly burnt quicklime, 8 lb. ; water, 100 

 gallons. The first application was given just before the flowers 

 opened and the second soon after the petals had fallen. Nothing 

 more was done to the trees. In the following winter the 

 surrounding trees were as badly affected with the disease as 

 ever, the majority of the leaves remaining unshed. Plate I 

 shows a photograph of one of the unsprayed trees standing in 

 the next row to the sprayed trees. The thirteen sprayed trees 

 presented the appearance seen in Plate II, which shows a 

 photograph of one of them ; only a few leaves remained unshed 

 from the branches, and the trees consequently were nearly 

 restored to health. 



* Journ. Roy. Ag?ic. Soc, England, Vol. 63, p. 290 (1902). 



