Joint Convention. 195 



The leaf turns dark, and finally black, and the I'otten sap or 

 poisonous fluid runs down the ])etal to the calyx, along the stem 

 of the little apple to the base, or where the fruit stems started 

 out of the flower bud, and then all are affected, if they have not 

 been before. From this point, if the weather is favorable, it 

 works down the new wood growth of the shoot, but if no shoot 

 has started out, to the leaves surrounding the flower steins. If 

 the part affected is here removed, or dry \veather comes on, the 

 progress is usually checked in most apples, and some of the crabs, 

 on account of the thicker bark, or from other causes; but with 

 the pear it is apt to run down the older wood and to extend 

 until the tree is killed, unless the limb or part affected is cut off 

 some distance below where it is discovered. Where this is not 

 done the tree usually dies, the second year if not the first. I 

 find that, instead of cutting off' the limb, it serves the same 

 purpose to girdle it, taking off all the inner bark below the dis- 

 eased portion, being careful not to use a knife that has been 

 used in cutting the poisoned, blighted wood. 



My observations have been very interesting to myself though 

 not wholly satisfactory, and I shall continue them another season 

 if I live, and make closer examinations if possible. Among other 

 things, I have noticed that there is as marked a variation of form 

 in the flowers of varieties as there is in the fruit, and I think 

 that they can be distinguished in this way more correctly than in 

 any other. Another remarkable fact noted was the starting in of 

 the blight from the blossoms. While all the western fruit grow- 

 ers that have discussed or written on this blight question, myself 

 not excepted, have held that it was the forcing of the sap through 

 the stomata, in the tender sap cells on the under side of the 

 leaves, or by puncture, etc., or the pressure of the sap circulation 

 that gives the parasitic fungi a chance to germinate in the dead, 

 or decaying fluid, or that it is the result of an over supply, a 

 crowding of the cellular structure with sap,'as we find it first and 

 most severe in young, rapid growing trees, especially in rich and 

 highly cultivated soils, but I found it just the reverse ; there was 

 not a sufficient supply, and hence the petals wilted because they 

 could not get what they required to meet the absorption of the 

 hot, dry winds. 



