THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
5°3 
FUNGI FROM THE ECONOMIC STANDPOINT 
By B. G. Pratt, of B. G. Pratt Company, Manufacturing 
Chemists, New York 
Few persons realize to what extent fungous troubles are 
robbing the fruit grower and farmer of the profits of his 
labor. The potato harvest is cut in half if not protected, 
and sometimes entirely ruined. The fruit harvested is 
lacking in size, color and smoothness. Consequently, apples 
of excellent flavor are sold to the cider mill, while apples 
that in quality are not fit for the cider mill command fancy 
prices because of their handsome appearance. Can we get 
this handsome appearance on Eastern grown fruit? I have 
no hesitation in answering, “Yes.” Experiments made in 
the East this past summer warrant my saying so. 
I had the privilege of attending the National Apple Show 
at Spokane, Washington, last November, which was un¬ 
doubtedly the greatest exhibition of beautiful apples that 
the World has ever seen. I had on exhibition some New 
York and West Virginia apples, which were equally highly 
colored as the same varieties grown in Washington and 
Oregon, just as smooth and perfect, and compared favorably 
in size. Many people suppose that there are certain clima¬ 
tic conditions in the West that are especially favorably to 
fruit. 'This is partly true. Climatic conditions were more 
favorable in the East thirty years ago than today. The 
increase in insect and fungous diseases has been discourag¬ 
ing to the most enthusiastic fruit growers, and many have 
fallen by the wayside. All of the newer fruit sections are 
freer from these draw-backs, but time will more or less 
equalize these conditions. The ever increasing demand for 
quality fruit and vegetables is calling for beauty as well as 
flavor, and fungous diseases do more than anything else to 
rob fruit of its lustre and bloom so pleasing to the eye, and 
for which the public are paying a disproportionately high 
price. 
Fungi, in plain English, represent one of the lowest 
groups of plant life, and those we have to deal with mostly 
on fruit and vegetables are parasites (microscopic in size), 
some of which attack, cuts or wounds such as are made by 
insects, or bruises from careless handling or packing; yet 
other forms of fungi will attack healthy plant life, boring 
their way through the healthy tissues. Heat and moisture 
are very favorable to their growth and spread, yet some 
forms are more abundant in cool seasons. It will thus be 
seen that fungi are of innumerable forms, attacking when 
and where least expected. This makes it a most dangerous 
enemy. It is like combatting a contagious disease which 
we cannot see and know it only by results. 
But the grower need not be discouraged, for an immense 
amount of work has been and is being done along these lines 
by both our National and State Governments, as well as 
chemists connected with commercial houses, and the experi¬ 
ments made in this past year have been exceedingly gratify¬ 
ing. You will appreciate the difficulty when you under¬ 
stand that a fungus is one plant growing on another, and a 
remedy must be found that will kill one without injury to 
the other. This has been the difficulty with the old Bor¬ 
deaux mixture, that in killing the fungi, the little plant cells 
on both leaf and fruit are often injured. 
Scientists have long believed that some form of sulphur 
other than the copper sulphate would destroy fungi without 
injury to the fruit and vegetables. This past season experi¬ 
ments were made with self-boiled Lime-Sulfur, commercial 
Lime-Sulfur, iron sulphate, etc., and each experimenter 
advocates most strongly his own preparation. We believe 
that the most promising of these preparations was experi¬ 
mented with last year under the name of “Sulfocide,” con¬ 
taining actually between 29% and 30% of sulphur in solu¬ 
tion, admitting of a great dilution; and in every instance 
where tried as a substitute for Bordeaux mixture, it has far 
surpassed it in effectiveness with no injury. Whether it 
can be used on peach and plum will be a matter of future 
experiment, but the fact that with less trouble and expense 
it can be used where Bordeaux has been the only remedy is 
very encouraging, and'makes it worthy of a trial. 
“BLACK LEAF” TOBACCO EXTRACT AGAINST APPLE 
APHIS 
Exhaustive experiments with “Black Leaf” Tobacco 
Extract for spraying purposes have been made by the 
Colorado Experiment Station, under the supervision of 
Professor C. P. Gillette, who advises that he has found 
“Black Leaf” “very satisfactory indeed, both for the de¬ 
struction of the woolly aphis and the green aphis of the 
apple tree.” He further states: “We also used it against 
the black peach aphis and the green peach aphis with 
equally good results. In Delta County, especially in the 
vicinity of Paonia, ‘Black Leaf’ was used quite extensively 
for the destruction of the two apple lice mentioned, and so 
far as I am able to learn universal satisfaction was given 
wherever the decoction was used as strong as one part in 75 
parts of water. Many are inclined to think that one part in 
100 is just as good. In my experiments here I found one 
part in 7 5 strong enough to destroy these lice if sufficient 
force was used in spraying to thoroughly wet their bodies. 
I do not find that the woolly aphis is any more difficult to 
kill than other plant lice when the insecticides are applied 
with sufficient force to wet through the waxy covering.” 
Professor Gillette further states (in an article in The 
Fruit Grower, St. Joseph, Mo.) that “the orchardists upon 
the Western slope in Colorado have thoroughly demonstra¬ 
ted that a tobacco preparation known as “Black Leaf,” used 
in water in the proportion of about one gallon to 65 or 70 
gallons of water, is a very effectual remedy against the plant 
lice of the orchard when thorough application is made. It 
has also been thoroughly proven that arsenate of lead is one 
of the best, if not the best, arsenical poisons for the destruc¬ 
tion of the codling moth. As the tobacco preparation is not 
an emulsion, and as it does not combine in any way with the 
arsenate of lead or act as an antidote to this poison, these 
two insecticides may be used together.” “The ‘Black Leaf’ 
should be in the proportion of about one gallon to 70 gallons 
of the mixture and the arsenate of lead in the proportion of 
about one pound to 20 gallons of the mixture. As the 
arsenate of lead has no power to destroy plant lice, neither 
has the tobacco preparation any appreciable effect in 
destroying the codling moth larvae. 
“It will not do to depend upon using a combined spray 
