194: Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. 



"Wealthy and Famense are of this kind. There are others which 

 have a similar form, and must give some protection against 

 frosts and cold winds. 



To return to the fact mentioned, that while the first flowers 

 that appeared were perfect in form yet failed to set, on examina- 

 tion, tlie petals seemed to be burned or scalded soon after they 

 fully opened and before the later varieties commenced to bloom. 

 At that time we had tw^o or three days when the thermometer 

 stood at 90° to 96°, with a hot dry wind from the southwest, and 

 in a short time not only the petals but the leaves around the 

 flower stems showed signs of blight, and the black liquid usually 

 seen with tire blight ran down from these twio;s and affected the 

 last year's wood growth also. IS^ine-tenths of the twigs thus af- 

 fected perished, a few escaped, where the blossom stem was 

 broken off at the start. Standard apples and crabs were affected 

 alike, also the north and south sides of the trees. All the trees 

 that were in full bloom during those hot days were thus blighted, 

 and in a few days looked as though a fire had run through them, 

 while the same varieties standing only a few rods apart that had 

 no blossom stems or were not yet in bloom, escaped altogether, 

 not only then, but all through the season, even in hotter weather, 

 when there was a greater tendency to produce blight. The cause 

 of this may perhaps be that the sap was in a better condition 

 and circulated more freely in the trees where there was no 

 bloom, or that the flower petals presented a larger surface and 

 a thinner leaf to the hot, dry wind, absorbing the sap 

 faster than it could be supplied, and thus causing them 

 to wilt and dry up. All the flowers of the stem were not 

 affected alike at first, as they were not all open when the 

 blight first struck the trees. IV hen the cooler and damp weather 

 came the petals of the later blossoms turned a grayish brown, 

 and were affected the same as the others of the cluster. It is 

 at this time and in these conditions that the spores of fungi 

 commence to germinate (or, as Prof. Burrill stated at a recent 

 meeting of the Illinois Horticultural Society, a lower, more 

 minute organism called bacteria, which he says are found in all 

 blighted trees, and live on dead substances the same as fungi). 



