22 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



large quantities of parasites to it witlmnt one of them harm- 

 ing it. No rabbit will eat off the bark, no gopher or mouse 

 • will attack a root, wounds will heal ([uickly. To quote my 

 friend, Mr. H. F. Schmid, of Canvonxillc, (^rc : 



"The development of the protective elements can be 

 greatly helped l)v the aid of our method of modified culture, 

 including the providing of the essential soil material. The 

 presence of the protective elements has so far niH been 

 discovered by analysis or the microscope. Plants apparently 

 immune to the one or another disease can be found every- 

 where, while trees entirely immune are today very rare. The 

 cause of this immunity has remained a riddle to science. It has 

 been proved that tlie animals are immune to certain bacilli, 

 the most insidious enemies of life, as long as they are healthy 

 and able to produce tlieir protective elements. Analogous to 

 this fact, 1 have found that plants, and especially fruit trees, 

 under normal conditions, will act the same way, provided 

 they obtain a sufficient degree of wholesomeness, under pro- 

 per culture. A fruit tree gets diseased and loses its resistant 

 power because under wrong culture it becomes unfit to pro- 

 duce its own protective elements against its enemies, and final- 

 ly becomes unfit for the reproduction of its own kind. If the 

 development of protective elements is made possible, the symp- 

 toms of disease and the parasites will disappear as (|uickly 

 as they came, since their presence is the result of a lack of 

 the necessary vital conditions and llie nutritives in the soil 

 It is not difficult to make a contrary test nf tliis discovery on 

 any relatively healthy tree, by producing certain diseases or 

 dispositions fa\()rable to parasites." 



Thus we see, that we must look for a different conce])- 

 tion of the true nature, cause, and cure of disease one more ir. 

 harmony with the laws of nature. Otherwise, the ever 

 increasing number of diseases and pe>l>, which have already 

 reached menacing dimensions and are causing enormous loses, 

 will end in disaster to (mv whule horticulture. Wlm can claim 



