38G Halstei^ : Influence of wet Weather 



faith in the *'iron clad'' nature of the **Kciffer" pear and tlic 

 year when many fruit growers determined that the '* Smith's cider" 

 apple was a variety no longer profitable siniply because of its sus- 

 ceptibility to the blight. Orchards of pears were so badly crippled 

 in 1894 that their recovery has been slow where ruin was not 

 complete. 



Turning to the printed notes for other fruits for the same year 

 it is found under the Cherry leaf spot fungus {^CylindrosporiiiDi padi 

 Karst.) that *' never before has the writer seen such an abundance 

 of this destructive parasite. It was impossible to find a single 

 tree that was not more or less affected by this fungus and in hun- 

 dreds of instances whole orchards were strikingly reddened by it/' 



Peaches were spotting badly with the Cladosporhun carpoplnluin 

 Thum., as early as June loth and particularly abundant upon the 

 foliage, giving it a very distressing appearance. 



The heavy September rains came late in the growing season 

 and did not seem to have any marked effect upon the health of the 

 ordinary crop plants for that autumn. 



The next season, however, was one in which blight prevailed, 

 but to a less extent than in 1894. The rains were somewhat ex- 

 cessive in April, 4.88 inches, followed by five months that in rain- 

 fall were below the average. 



In connection with a bacterial disease like the fire blight, one 

 is not yet able to decide how much of the progress of the disease 

 may be ascribed to the previous rainy autumn and the wet early 

 spring and we must not forget that the year before was remarkable 

 for blight, thereby leaving a vast stock of germs on hand for future 

 development. 



It remains to consider in brief the year i S96, which, as a whole, 

 was a dry one with a rainy June and July. It w^as during this 

 time that the asparagus rust Pnccmia asparagl DC, made its 

 appearance in the Eastern United States to an alarming extent. 

 The records show that the same disease reappeared in 1897 in even 

 greater abundance, at least in New Jersey, and the wet season 

 closed with the asparagus beds literally brown from the ravages of 

 the rust. ■ 



It is too soon to predict in more than in a general way the 

 outcome of a crop when the main features of the weather arc given. 



