Agriculture for Beginners: Revised EditionBurkett, Charles William
Science
Agriculture for Beginners: Revised Edition
Burkett, Charles William
Agriculture
Just as the fungus studied above lives in the apple or bread, so other
varieties live on leaves, bark, etc. Fig. 113 represents the surface of
a mildewed rose leaf greatly magnified. This mildew is a fungus. You can
see its creeping stems, its upright stalk, and numerous spores ready to
fall off and spread the disease with the first breath of wind. You must
remember that this figure is greatly magnified, and that the whole
portion shown in the figure is only about one tenth of an inch across.
Fig. 114 shows the general appearance of a twig affected by this
disease.
Mildew on the rose or on any other plant may be killed by spraying the
leaves with a solution of liver of sulphur; to make this solution, use
one ounce of the liver of sulphur to two gallons of water.
The fungus that causes the pear-leaf spots has its spores in little pits
(Fig. 115). The spores of some fungi also grow on stalks, as shown in
Fig. 116. This figure represents an enlarged view of the pear scab,
which causes so much destruction.
You see, then, that fungi are living plants that grow at the expense of
other plants and cause disease. Now if you can cover the leaf with a
poison that will kill the spore when it comes, you can prevent the
disease. One such poison is the Bordeaux (_bor-do_') mixture, which
has proved of great value to farmers.
Since the fungus in most cases lives within the leaves, the poison on
the outside does no good after the fungus is established. The treatment
can be used only to _prevent_ attack, not to cure, except in the case of
a few mildews that live on the outside of the leaf, as does the rose
mildew.
=EXERCISE=
Why do things mold more readily in damp places? Do you now
understand why fruit is heated before it is canned? Try to grow
several kinds of mold. Do you know any fungi which may be eaten?
Transfer disease from a rotten apple to a healthy one and note the
rapidity of decay. How many really healthy leaves can you find on a
strawberry plant? Do you find any spots with reddish borders and
white centers? Do you know that this is a serious disease of the
strawberry? What damage does fruit mold do to peaches, plums, or
strawberries?
Write to your experiment station for bulletins on plant diseases
and methods for making and using spraying mixtures.
SECTION XXVIII. YEAST AND BACTERIA
Can you imagine a plant so small that it would take one hundred plants
lying side by side to equal the thickness of a sheet of writing-paper?
There are plants that are so small. Moreover, these same plants are of
the utmost importance to man. Some of them do him great injury, while
others aid him very much.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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