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varieties always rot more or less, and generally much worse than mid¬ 
dle or late sorts. It would, however, be a mistake to suppose that any 
variety is wholly exempt. Even sorts with the firmest fiesh, e. </., 
Troth’s Early and Smock, perish very quickly if the meteorological 
conditions are favorable to the growth of the fungus. A single rain 
near the period of ripening will often immediately double or treble the 
number of rotting fruits. 
It is also a great mistake to suppose the skin of the peach must first 
be punctured by insects or injured in some other way before the fungus 
can find an entrance. Every peach grower of long experience knows 
that this is not true, and auy one can satisfy himself on this point by 
giving to the subject a little patient consideration. Injured fruits are 
more easily infected; that is all. In years of abundance only a small 
proportion of the peache which remain on the trees are punctured by 
the curculio or otherwise injured, yet the entirecrop may rot very quickly 
during a rainy period, or during a series of hot days, with occasional 
rains or heavy dews. Moreover, in the laboratory I have infected the 
soundest peaches by merely sowing a few Monilia spores in a drop of 
water upon their surface, the control spots remaining entirely sound. 
To be most successful this experiment must be conducted in an atmos¬ 
phere nearly saturated with vapor of water and at a temperature not 
much below 90° F. In the laboratory, as well as in the field, an increase 
in temperature of 10° to 20° above the normal causes an astonishing in¬ 
crease in the rapidity of the rot. 
Some reference to the actual losses resulting from this rot during 
the autumn of 1888 will serve to show what happens not infrequently, 
and will afford ample basis for judgment as to the economic importance 
of restrictive measures. 
The peach crop of the Delaware and Chesapeake Peninsula is well 
known to have been unusually abundant in 1888. I traveled extensively 
in six counties and saw for myself. All varieties fruited and the orchards 
bent under the weight of their precious burden. Even old, broken, 
neglected trees, in fence rows and pastures, were full of fruit. The early 
and middle varieties were gathered uninjured, except by a single wind¬ 
storm, and were sold at prices ranging from 50 cents to $1.25 and up¬ 
wards a basket. Until the end of the first week in September there 
was also every prospect for a very large crop of Smock and similar 
productive late peaches, which are planted very extensively for drying 
purposes. September 7 rainy weather set in over the upper part of the 
Peninsula, and continued almost uninterruptedly for five or six days. 
When it was not actually raining it was lowering and the air was full 
of moisture. These remarks apply especially to the counties of Kent 
and Cecil in Maryland and to Kent and New Castle in Delaware. At 
this date the Smock peaches were almost or quite ready to pick. The 
weather was not excessively warm, but the rain was so nearly continu¬ 
ous, and the spores of the Monilia were so widespread, that a veritable 
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