The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-06-05

nature. This question is not vet answered. It
Is not known how the microbes get inside the
TIE 10 the spring. There IS scarcely any doubt
mat they get in from the air, or at least
from the outside. Practical pear growers and
the lew botanists who have studied this disease
agree mat the common methed of gaining en-
trance IS through the flowers. Possibly
oees spread the disease from one flower
10 another. and perhaps the viscid surface
OF the stigma in the flower furnishes a starting
/ point. But this Is theory. It is not known
Just now they get start, but one thing is sure.
whea they do get inthey make great mischief.
AS may be in erred from the above, Their are
Two possibilities for Infection. First from the
| microbes left over from the year before and
/ shed ont from the dead limbs OF blown up in
\ the dust. Second, from microbes which multi
/ Piled aad increased in the soil
PRODUCING BLIGHT ARTIFIcIALLY
By inoculating the pear blight microbes into
| arti1eially. If a freshly blighted twig DO
I scraped with knife in small quantity of
/ water great many of the microbes will be
| washed out into the water. This may be used
Tor very satisfactory experiment which any
one can try. b dipping the point of pm or a
knife into this wa er, and TRUSTING it into
green pear at this date, the disease will begin
to show at the point of incubation in
will be thoroughly full of the blight, The
blight was also produced in part of the trials in
the growing tips, but the green fruit is much
more reliable on account of the moisture it con-
tans: This was tried repeatedly and never
failed in case of the green fruit The tissues of
the pear are the soil in which these bacteria
thrive, and putting them in there is like plant
ing SO many seeds.
WHAT WILL KILL THEM.
We have in the above, then, a pretty good
test for the vitality of the microbes AS prep
aration and foundation for future experiments
for remedy, II was thought desirable to test
the susceptibility of the microbes to certain
! poisons which are known TO kill higher parasitic
fungi. Accordingly preparations were made of
some OF the wel-known fungicideS which are
used IN spraying the grapevine for the proven
ton of mildew and black rot. The microb s
were mixed up in these instead of water, and
as check, one was prepared in pure
water This material was then used for
| incubation. The unniured microbes readily
produced the disease, and part of those treated
| to the fungicides were killed. Without going
into the details Of the experiments which were
| conducted with care, 1t may be said that the
| simple solution of copper suphete killed even
when as low as Il per cent. solution was used
Bordeaux mixture "a mixture of lime and con-
| per sulphate Solution) ana Eau Celeste Ia solu-
ton of copper sulphate and ammonia), of the
| usual strength, Killed the microbes solutions
of sulphuret of potassium failed to kill
below per cent The 2 per cent. Sou-
ton did the work, however The organism is
thus shown to be reasonably susceptible to or
dina"y fungicides. and the question comes up:
Can not the trees be sprayed with these fungi
cides IN the way that grape vines are before the
period of infection. and the entrance of the or
ganism prevented? The experiment is certainly
worth trying, and it is hoped that it will be. If
successful the treatment woulI not be expen-
sive or impractical Unfortunately one must
wait until next spring before anything in this
line can be tried
THE LEcoNTE PEAR.
The history of the Introduction and rapid
spread of this superb pear tree is well known to
most readers. The tree is remarkable for its
vigorous and luxurious growth, It's early fruit
ing and wonderful productiveness, which must
be sts1 TO be fully appreciated The young
pear orchards with their vertical branches
heavily clothed with dark. green foliage and the
older trees dropping under their immense load
OF valuable fruit tor horticultural picture
that is without q rival, On its merits thousands
of acres Of the best lard In South Georgia
with this pear Although scarcely ten
per cent. have yet reached the Bearing age it
is rapidly pushing forward as one of the first
agricultural products in this section. The tree
has been usually the very picture of health,
free from the usual pests of fruit trees. The
orchards have received care and attention that
is commendable. Indeed they models of
their kind. Previous to the present outbreak
the LeConte pear was considered to be free
from blight, and although it is a little down at
present, it seems scarcely probable that the
disease will do more than to damage the tree
for few years.
At Thomasville the blight was observed to be
very severe. Some orchards within mile or so
of the place were only slightly attacked and
have fine crop of fruit; others have nearly
every fruiting spur killed Many of the trees
in the gardens about the town are badly af-
fected, so that they have scarcely any fruit.
But few trees at this place are killed. and rarely
is a large branch affected. The disease here is
mostly confined to the tips of the branches and
the fruit spurs, some trees showing two or
three hundred distinct points of infection. AS
to the general result. a prominent shipper of
pears from this point gave it as his opinion that
there was good half a crop in this vicinity. If
the disease should not continue next year the
trees will recover and no permanent injury will
result.
At Boston, Ga-Here the blight was the most
severe yet seen. Most all the old trees near
town are dead or nearly so. The blight spread
downward, attacking the large limbs and
trunks either killing the tree entirely or per-
nanently injuring it. Here, as elsewhere, the
young orchards are almost entirely free from
blight, although. as an exceptional case, half
dozen cases of the disease were Seea in the nur
sery rows. There is very little fruit here, ex.
cept on the young trees just coming into
bearing.
AT Camilla-Here the, blight was also very
severe. The disease behaved the same as it did
at Boston, killing the large branches, and fire.
quentlY the whole tree. ~ JOG -.-
At Quitman-This point seems to be on the
outer edge of the affected area; only a few
scattered twigs Of genuine pear blight were
seen. a'''. 9'fl'4
blight at this place. No damage done, but just
enough blight to say that the disease has
reached that point.
At Talahassee-Duri the few hours spent
in searching for the disease around this place,
it was not found. A few diseased limbs were
shown me, but no genuine pear blight. How
ever, am informed that at Live Oak, Madison
and other points in Middle Florida, the disease
has done considerable damage.
BLIGHT IN OTHER FRUITS
Precisely the same dsease-microbes and all
occurs in the ounce, the apple, the Siberian
crab apple and the wild May haw. These
plants lifelong to the natural order osdceB
and are near allies of the pear / have not
yet found the microbes in the plum any
other stone fruit, although some dead twigs of
the plum were examined, which looked a little
like blight. They doubtless diei from some
other cause. The disease occurs in all varieties
of pear; some years it is worse in some varle
ties and some years in another. Where the
Kieffer stood near diseased LeContes it was
much less affected than they were. On the
| other hand Bartlett ard Howell in the same
position seemed to be worse affected.
OTHER PEAR DISEASES.
While visiting the pear orchards in the study
of blight another disease was freque tly Oh
served, and was informed that it had done
considerable damage to some trees in past years.
1t is known as the Leaf spot disease. 1t may be
| recognized by small circular brown spots scat
| tered over the leaves the same thing on the
| fruit causes scabby, nasty appearance. The
spots are scarcely an eighth of an
inch in diameter. each one being the
growth from a single spore. When leaf has
very many of these spots on it it turns yellow
and fails off In this way many trees may be
entirely defoliate1 by the end of June. Tnese
leaf spots are the work of a small parasitic
fungus. 1t is much larger and higher up the
scale than the microbe, but it is still very