La Crosse Meeting. 23 



winter, the snow would hardly save them, and he believed the 

 real cause of their death was in the spring. No doubt but the 

 plants were weakened by freezing in dry ground, but they seem 

 to have held their own during the winter, and when the snow 

 melted they gradually recovered and grew finely, until the hot, 

 dry weather came on, when they were in full bloom. 



Mr. Harris inquired if the chinch bug was injurious to the 

 strawberry, lie had noticed them on the plants. 



Mr. Marscomb said he had seen beds where the bugs had eaten 

 the leaves full of holes, but did not observe any evil results 

 from it. 



Mr. Peffer had not seen them working on the strawberry, but 

 no matter what is eating the leaves of the plant, it is an injury, 

 whether it is done before or after fruiting. 



Mr. Peffer remarked that the first appearance of fire-blight this 

 season was when the apple trees were in full bloom. The first 

 attacks he observed were made in the flowers themselves, some- 

 times commencing in the petals, at others in the stamens and an- 

 thers, and gradually working into the twig or shoot. He did not 

 regard it as infectious or contagion?, but rather dependent upon 

 conditions of the atmosphere. 



Mr. Harris had come to the conclusion that there were various 

 causes that tended to favor and produce blight Lack of hardi- 

 ness was one; our trees had not power to endure our winters, and 

 being injured or weakened by them, were subject to attacks of 

 blight Another is that our trees are set too near together. 

 Again, the elements in the soil necessary to produce a healthy, 

 vigorous growth, are exhausted, or are not there in the right propor- 

 tion. He did not think that at the first attack in the season, it 

 was contagious, but when it becomes abundant, it seems to be an 

 epidemic and to spread like the Asiatic Cholera. 



Mr. Partridge, of Warren, inquired if weakness or lack of 

 vigor was the cause of blight, why the Transcendent, one of the 

 most vigorous growers and the hardiest of all our trees, is so 

 subject to it The same is true of the greater part of our Sibe- 

 rians. They are the only trees that are hardy enough to stand 



