STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 167 



Mr. Baird reported the apples of Monmouth County very badly 

 affected the past season. Smith's Cider especiall}'. 

 President Pearson reported the loss of fruit and foliage. 



[From article by Prof. J. T. Burrill of Illinois, in Ti-ansactions of the Mississippi Valley 



Horticultural Society, Vol. 1, 1883.] 



It is, however, no new thing. It has neither come into existence 

 in our time nor has it recently been introduced in our part of the 

 countr}'. Its dispersion over the world seems to be as wide as that 

 of the apple itself, and records now exist in the books of its occa- 

 sional prolific development and injuries over nearly a century of 

 time. Botanists have baptised it with several names, hard enough of 

 course, and collectors of specimens count it in the make-up of herbaria, 

 sometimes more than once, on account of the synonymical names 

 under which it is known. Now, however, the authorities are quite 

 generally agreed that henceforth Fusidadium dendriticum, Fhl., 

 shall be its true and onh' title in scientific parlance. 



Turning now to the supposed conditions which have of late influ- 

 enced the increased injuries of the fungus, nothing can be asserted 

 with positiveness, but all indications seem to point to atmospheric 

 and climatic causes rather than any special physiological changes in 

 the trees themselves. Some kinds of trees are much worse aff*ected 

 than others, and this may be generally true of special varieties, or 

 onl}' during certain seasons, or at certain ages of the stock. But nearly 

 all varieties of apples and pears have unusually suffered, at least in 

 places, during the last year. Even nursery stock has been singed 

 and stunted. 



It seems to me, we are first to look to the open and humid autumn 

 of 1881 as an important contribution to the severe result. During 

 this time the fungus certainly did vigorouslv develop on the fading 

 leaves, and especially on the unripened shoots of the year's growth. 

 As the spores very readily germinate when moistened, it is not 

 probable that any of them survive the winter on the fallen leaves. 

 When once germinated, winter's vicissitudes soon put an end to 

 them as the}' do to sprouting seeds. But on the twigs, in the dr^' air, 

 both spores and mycelium successfully pass the winter and freely 

 grow in the spring. 



Having thus an unusual start last spring (1882) and unusuallv 

 favored bv the remarkable lateness and wetness of the season, the 

 fungus became immensely' developed, and, as we know, did immense 



