The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1907-02-14
spear Blight" or "Apple Blight. -

The subject of pear blight OF fire
blight is one which Is OF the greatest
interest and any new light on the
subject is always gladly received.
have tested my different ideas, and
relieve am getting closer to the solu
tion of the problem, realizing, how
ever, that my work Is not complete
and will not be until in the spring of
1907.
To be successful orchardist you
must become familiar with the trees
growing IN your orchard, not merely
passing acquai ,tance, but O hsa-ty,
old fashioned country acquaintance,
knowing them as one knows his own
family, familiar with their "a, tions,
their ways Of life and habits, knowing
their good quantities and their faults
as we'll. When sick or In trouble,
sympathiz5 with them; when overtak-
en- by disease, be ready to minist or
relief, In applying effective remedies.
Ii you thus hold close, friendly, al
most kindred relations with the trees
in your orchard, you will be surpi ised
how you l,arn to love them. Their
ailments will be yours. What is bet.
ter, what more happy, where can you
be more conteLt than when you stroll
through your orchard in time OF fruit
age, when the trees wave their vel.
come to you, rejoicing with you as
they throw showers OF fruit, all Grim
son with blus' es, as II falls in your
basket-rejoicing with you because
the harvest time gives them opportun.
ity to repay your generous care.
Late liz May, 1906, was In on or
chard spraying, when my attention
was drawn to several apple branches
tearng peculiar canker. Since then
l have run across Others In the valley
These trees show a startling condi.
tion.- .-of atfaiIs. Many trees had fail I'D
to leave out, others had sent out a
very scant supply of small curled
leaves and were 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.
All of the trees showed considerable
amount of canker, either in the
crotches of the large limbs. on the
limbs themselves, or ON the trunks,
In order to make a thorough investi.
CATION, | have made weekly visits to
one of the orchards, while in others
have been at intervals of from two to
three weeks. have collected large
amount Of data in the forms of notes
photographs and cultures. 1t is as
yet, however, too early for rue TO
give definite statement regarding
the cause of all the phenomena OBJ
served. With some / have used arti.
hcial inoculations, and it now seems
to me probable that the different
forms of canker and twig blight found
to be in most cases due to the same
cause.
During the early spring | was able
to find what was the cause Of the
trouble. 1t had been damp, rainy
weather for several days, and no.
ticed thick, milky drops oozing from
the surface oil cankered limb. An
examination showed this liquid to be
alive with rod haped 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 bac-
terial disease. at once obtained q
healthy twig of pear tree as we'll as
a healthy twig OF an apple and inocu-
lated these from the diseased bark.