- 4 6- 



the pears was speckled. Peaches dropped their leaves and fruits 

 early in the season. The blackberries and later raspberries, in 

 some sections, dried up and the bushes looked unhealthy. It is 

 probable that similar injuries extend, in a greater or less degree, 

 to all parts of the State. 



I. APPLES, PEARS, QUINCES. ■ 



It is an almost universal opinion among growers that the weath- 

 er is responsible for the general failure, particularly in the case of 

 apples, where failure is the most complete and disastrous, an'd 

 which were just passing out of bloom when a prolonged storm, of 

 unusual severity and accompanied by lightning, passed over the 

 country. It has long been supposed that cold and heavy rain at 

 blooming time will prevent fertilization of the flowers, and the 

 idea appears to be universally accepted. Yet I know of no reason 

 for thinking it generally true, or at least of sufficient moment to 

 account for the failure of a crop. There are not only strong gen- 

 eral reasons for doubting the notion, but several minor observa- 

 tions are also against it. For instance, two Seckel pear trees, 

 equally exposed and of the same age, both of which bore a heavy 

 crop last year, stand but a rod apart, and were in bloom at the 

 same time : one has no fruit and the other is loaded. We have 

 all observed good crops of fruit in years when heavy rains fell at 

 blooming time. 



In undertaking to determine why blossoms fail to set, it should 

 be borne in mind that fully four-fifths of the flowers of apples and 

 pears fall naturally. The flowers are borne in clusters, yet the 

 fruits are usually borne singly. The redundancy of flowers ap- 

 pears to be nature's method of insuring fertilization, by increas- 

 ing the amount of pollen and multiplying the chances of success. 

 The blossom which is strongest, or which gets the best start, 

 wholly aside from its position in the cluster, appropriates energy 

 to itself, while its neighbors fail.* 



In most cases the apples had set and were about the size of 

 small peas when they began to die. They withered, turned 

 brown and fell. The date of attack varied somewhat in varieties 

 which bloom at different times. The Greenings died before the 

 the late flowering sorts, but all were probably attacked at about 



See Bailey, Bull. 3r, Mich. Exp. Sta. 92, 



