The record-union., 1897-11-20
FRUIT GROWERS ADJOURN.
NEXT CONVENTION WILL MEET
IN FRESNO.
A Committee Appointed to Raise
$4,000 to Send an Exhibit
to Europe.

The morning session of the state
Fruit Growers convention opened yes
terday morning with an essay by Pro-
fessor c. w. Woodwork Of the State
University on Scale injury 1t was
as follows:
The California fruit grower has had
more occasion to become acquainted
with the effects of the attacks of scale
insects than has the producer Of fruits
in any other section of the country, but
there is one set OF facts connected with
this subject that have not been given
the prominence they deserve.
We all realize that proper living is
better than medicine, and no longer
need apostles of hygiene to proclaim
its Importance, but the facts which
underle the hygiene of vegetable life
seem to be too much ignored. There
are two departments of hygiene,
whether of animals or plants, having
to deal with two different classes of
phenomena. One is the hygiene Of
health by which we strive to maintain
the system under normal conditions in
the most desirable physical vigor; the
other deals with abnormal conditions,
and comprehends those means by which
we strive to direct the system toward
health. This department of hygiene
borders very closely on the province
of medicine, but differs from it in that
medicine aims at the root of the trouble
by destroying or neutralizing that
which causes the disease, while hygiene
strives to make the conditions more
favorable for the animal or plant than
for the disease.
You have learned in a practical way
great deal about the first department
of plant hygiene and are so skillful
through cultivating, pruning and irri-
eating that you maintain under favor
able conditions orchards which are the
peers of any on the face of the earth
and even in the second department Of
plant hygiene many proceed on what
appears to be the correct principles
The purpose of this paper is, by point
ing out some facts which are certainly
not generally appreciated and certain
errors more or less widely entertained,
10 so call attention to this subject that
through it and the discussions that
may follow, those attending this con-
Vention may be led into better meth
DDS Of treating diseased, and, especially,
scaly trees.
In the first place it will be well to
recall some of the pertinent facts of
plant physiology. As we all under
stand the unit of vegetable is the CELL
The living cell is a jelly-like mass of
substance, usually surrounded by and
contained within hardened walls pro-
duced hy the cell for its own protec-
tion. These cell walls constitute the
bulk of the substance of most plants.
and in trees there is a relatively small
number of living cells, the greater part
OF the tree consisting of the cell walls
OF cells long since dead. This dead
tissue constitutes all the wood and
bark Of tree, and forms a very i'm
portant. indeed. an essential part of the
healthy tree. 1t is, of course, only in
the tissue composed of living cells that
there occurs any growth or other of the
vital activities of the tree The health
Of tree depends. on the maintenance
of the cells in all parts of this liv-
ing tissue in their proper condition,
abundance and relationship
The cells of a plant are to a good ex
tent inGependent of each other, but
there are some relationships in which
power that every living cell has of alb
sorbing water, or food materials with
which it comes in contact, makes it pos
sible for cells to secure from adiacent
cells any of these which the adjacent
cell may have in greater abundance
thus providing for the interchange and
tranSposition of water and food ma
teflal. This absorbtive power is not
PnTgl i'm a
less as the cells become old or dis
eased, and when a cell becomes weak
enough it finally falls a prey to IFS
more successful neighbors and there
remains only the old cell wall of the
DEAD cell. In the matter Of water and
everything that may be dissolved there
IS another Item Cells not only can alb
sorb from each other. but are able to
unload on each other the excess they
may nave, and even on the dead cells
Oh the wood tissue, so that the wood
tissue OF the trunk is made to carry a
considerable quantity of water.
This interchange Of substances from
one part of the plant to another is call
ed the flow Of sap. There are two
sources Of income TO the plant. The
roots absorb water and those sub
stances dissolved in it, chiefly inorganic
salts.
The leaves take In carbonic acid and
manufacture it into starch, sugar and
fiber
This interchange of substance from
one part of the plant to another is
What should be meant by the flow of
sap There is a great amount of mis-
conception about the sap Of plants and
ats method Of flowing II the plant
Is cut when the cells contain an ex-
cess Of water this water will be given
forth and the plant is said TO bleed.
Tbs fluid is water, and whatever food
substances that may be dissolved in
IT, and Is what we know as the sap.
III Is not at all comparable with the
blood OF animals. BY the upward flow
or sap We should simply mean the
movement Of the water which is taken
up by the roots and travels to the leaf
as II is used in growth or lost in evap-
Grafton, and by the downward flow we
shcnid likewise mean the movement
OF the food material away from the
leaves where 1t is manufactured. to any
part of the plant where it is TO be used
for growth. Many speak of the up--
ward flow OF sap in the spring and
the downward flow in the fail. but the