Diseases and Insect Pests of the Grapevine - Selected Articles

By Read Books Ltd.

This book contains a collection of classic articles on the diseases and pests common to grape vines, with information on identification, prevention, spraying, and many other related aspects. With helpful illustrations and simple directions, this volume will be of utility to the modern fruit grower, and would make for a fantastic addition to collections of horticultural literature. Contents include: “Fruit Growing”, “Diseases and Insects – Peter B. Mead”, “Insects and Diseases – Andrew S. Fuller”, “Diseases and Insects – John Phin”, and “Insects and Diseases – William C. McCollom”. Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly rare and expensive. We are republishing this volume now in an affordable, high-quality edition complete with a specially commissioned new introduction on fruit growing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Nov 7, 2012
• ISBN: 9781447491514

Book preview

IVY

Diseases and Insects

by

Peter B. Mead

DISEASES AND INSECTS.

Diseases.—The laws of health and disease are very much the same in animal and vegetable life: plants, in common with man, will become liable to disease by an infraction of these laws. The subject is so broad that we can only treat it in a general way here. We wish to establish the analogy, however, since it will do away many illusions in the mind of the novice. Different kinds of animals have their allotted periods of life: in one kind it may be ten years or less, while in others it may be fifty or more; the elephant, for example, lives to a much greater age than the dog. It is so with plants: some fulfill their life in a single year, while others count the years of their life by thousands. The average life of plants is greater than that of man. The existence of both is shortened by violence in various forms, and both are liable to disease. The average health and life of man is greatest when he lives in a condition of simplicity, supplying only the natural wants of his appetites; but when he places himself under artificial conditions, he loses a part of his hardihood, becomes more susceptible to disease in its various forms, and recourse is had to various means for restoring and maintaining, as well as may be, the operation of well-known physical laws, which are necessary to health. It is the same with plants. When growing in their natural condition, they are subject to few diseases; but when placed under artificial conditions, and made tender and susceptible by injudicious hybridizing, crossing, selection, propagation, etc., they become peculiarly liable to disease, and means must be used here also to restore and maintain the operation of those physical laws which apply to the case. These brief allusions sufficiently show the general analogy between animals and plants in respect to those physical laws which govern life. If the reader appreciates it as he should, he will learn to study the diseases of the vine for himself, and not look upon them as a sort of fatality not to be overcome.

We will now confine our remarks to the vine. The vine, like man, is subject to disease; and as some men are constitutionally more liable to disease than others, so some kinds of vines are constitutionally more liable to disease than others. There are conditions which favor, or even invite, the attacks of disease in men; and it is the same with the vine. All kinds of vines, no matter what their constitution may be are liable to disease, if placed under conditions favorable to its attacks; there is not a variety in cultivation that has proved an exception, and there never will be. When, therefore, it is said that a vine is healthy, it is in the sense that we say a man is healthy when he is not subject to constitutional disease; at least, that is the sense in which we use the term. What we wish the reader to understand is simply this: that all kinds are liable to disease, some more and others less; and that all kinds, without exception, if placed under conditions unfavorable to the healthy action of the leaves or roots, will become enfeebled or diseased. He will then appreciate the importance of studying the conditions which are necessary to health or strength, and endeavor to supply and maintain them; he will understand that the health of the vine is in a great measure under his control, and that he can judge of the hardiness of kinds only by their deportment under reasonably favorable conditions of growth. What we should all of us do, therefore, is to study diligently the laws and conditions which are concerned in the preservation of health in plants, or, in other words, the conditions that are necessary to normal development and hardy growth. These we have already so fully stated and so earnestly insisted upon, that it is unnecessary to dwell upon them here.

Mildew.—This is a wide-spread and destructive disease, and difficult to manage when established. It is also known by the botanical names Erysiphe and Oidium. In portions of Europe the Oidium Tuckeri has at times been particularly fatal. With us it has been much less injurious. Mildew is a parasite in the form of a fungus, and attacks the leaves, fruit, and wood. It first makes its appearance on the under side of the leaf, like a fine mould. The mycelium penetrates the tissue of the leaf, and destroys it, when the leaf becomes discolored in spots, showing where the fungus is at work. In this place we can not do more than state briefly some of the causes and conditions which produce the disease, with the remedies that have proved most effectual