The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1906-09-26
PAUL KRUGER ON
THE PEAR BLIGHT
GOOD VIEWS AND OBSERVATIONS
Some Varieties That Have Proven
Less Susceptible Than Others
10 the Disease.

blight, IS one watch Is of The great
est inteest. ana any new light on
the subject IS always gladly received
/ have made careful investigation
have tested my different ideas and /
believe l am coming closer TO the So
luton Of the problem. realizing, how
ever, that my work is not complete
and Wiz not be until the spring Of
1907. To be a successful orchardist
YOU must become familiar with the
trees growing in your orchard, not
merely a passing acquaintance, but
hearty, old-fashioned country ae-
quaintance. knowing them as one
knows his own family, with their ac
tions, their ways of life and habits,
know their good qualities. their
faults as we'll. When sick or in
trouble sympathize with them, when
overtaken by disease, be ready to
minister relief by applying effective
remedies. If you thus hold close
friendly, almost kindred relations
with your trees in your orchard you
will be surprised how you learn to
love them. Their ailments will be
yours. What is better, what more
happy. Where can you be more con-
tent than when you are strolling
through your orchard when the time
of fruitage comes waving their well
come to you. rejoicing with you as
they can throw showers of fruit all
crimson with bushes, as it falls in
your basket, and they rejoice with
you because the harvest time gives
them opportunity 10 repay your gen.
erous care. Late in May, 1906,
was in an orchard spraying, when my
attention was drawn TO several ap-
pie branches bearing peculiar can
her. Since then l have run across
others in the valley. These trees
show startling condition of affairs. |
Many trees had failed to leave out, |
others had sent out a very scanty |
supply of small, curled leaves and |
we're making little or no growth; still |
others had apparently leaved out all |
right, while again on others the
leaves had turned brown and dried |
up and the limb had died. Particu
larly all of the trees, even those ap-
parently healthy. showed consid- |
cradle number of canker, either in |
the crotches of the large limbs, on
the limbs themselves or on the !
trunks. In order TO make a thor
ough investigation have made /!
weekly visits to one OF the orchards, /
while in others have been at inter
walls from two TO three weeks. ] have !
collected large amount of data in
the form Of notes, photographs and
cultures. 1t is as yet, however, too
early for me to give definite state
ment regarding the cause of all the
phenomena observed With some
have used artificial innoculat!on, and |
it now seems to me probable that the
different forms of canker and twig
blight found in most cases are due
to the same cause.
The Bacteria Found-During the
early spring was able TO find what
was the cause OF the trouble. It had
been damp, rainy weather for several
days and i noticed thick. milky drops
oozing from the surface of a can
kered limb. An examination showed
this liquid 10 be alive with a rod
shaped bacillus The diseased bark
was soft and watery and sap from
within was found TO be teeming with
the bacteria. An idea struck me
that the canker was a bacterial dis
ease. ! at once obtained a healthy
twig of a pear tree, az well as a
healthy twig Of apple and l inocu-
lated. these from the diseased bark.
This resulted in we'll developed
sanker, especially in the pear tree.
also inoculated pear and apple
blossoms and the result was blight in
four to ten days. In my investiga-
ton during the season | have also
found this to be fact; where l find
orchards well sprayed, carefully
pruned, pear blight or any other dis
ease mas not been able TO obtain
foothold therein. Ii has also been
demonstrated to me that there is con-
siderable difference in the resistance
of the variety of the diseases. In the
apple line Wolf River, Tallman
Sweets, Winesap, Red Astrachan,
Grimes Golden, Jonathan, etc. |
find more susceptible are the Ben
Davis. Baldwin, Stark. ,Greening and
Fall Pippin. In the pear line find
Bartletts more affected than any
other and more susceptible, while
the Kieffer Hybrid and the Croker
Bartlett are hardly ever affected with
the blight.
Treatnent-Any intelligence of