76 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



with the future growth if you are careful, but you must get rid of as 

 much of the disease as you can. If you leave any disease on the bush 

 be sure and spray early with the lime-sulphur wash in order to stop 

 the appearance of the mildew in the spring. 



With regard to ' silver leaf ' and Portugal Laurel : this tree is 

 attacked, and also the Laburnum, but the fungus does not produce 

 its fruit upon the trees until they are dead. As soon as you find 

 it on a tree it is a sure sign that the tree is dead, and you can 

 do away with it and burn it. 



Captain Wellington, of the Food Production Department, said : — 

 I think there are one or two points which require emphasis. The 

 first point is with regard to distribution. I think the speaker over- 

 looked one point, and I differ from him in his statement that you 

 cannot do away with the middleman. In some cases there is a super- 

 fluous middleman, and it is the duty of the grower and the salesman 

 to look into this matter. It sometimes happens in the London market 

 that a lot of fruit is sent by a provincial buyer to a provincial sales- 

 man, and then to the retailer. The grower should send direct to the 

 provincial market, and the only way that can be done is by a better 

 system of telephones. Until we get that am afraid there will be no 

 change in the present conditions. I think it is a matter of great 

 importance that we should have better telephone facilities. They 

 already exist in the west of England, and in that part of the country 

 all fruit is sold direct on the provincial market. 



I was delighted to hear Mr. Smith's remarks in regard to varieties. 

 At the Board of Agriculture we are trying to persuade people to cut 

 down the number of varieties as low as possible. You should plant as 

 few varieties as possible, because we must get bulk of standard 

 varieties, and until we get that bulk we shall not have a really 

 sound British fruit industry. 



At the present time ' silver leaf ' is becoming a serious factor in 

 regard to the ' Victoria ' Plum, but the ' Pershore ' is highly resistant 

 to the disease, and I think it will have to be more generally grown until 

 we succeed in growing other varieties which are resistant. 



With regard to the breeding of new varieties of apples, I think at 

 the present time we are years behind the times. In fact, we have not 

 made much advance since Mr. Knight was President of the R.H.S. 

 a hundred years ago. We have had few really good new varieties 

 during the last fifteen or twenty years, and we need new varieties 

 possessing qualities commending them to the consumer and grower, 

 and resistant to disease. 



In regard to spraying, you often find people spraying with insecti- 

 cides too late, whereas it should be done early in the season when 

 the buds are just beginning to break. Early spraying gives success, 

 whereas late spraying means failure, because you cannot get at the 

 root of the evil. If you spray early for caterpillar, you do your 

 work effectively, whereas if you do it now, it is only half-done, with 

 the result that you only get a partial crop. 



