210 Report of the Botanist of the 



at first small and more or less circular, but later coalesce into 

 .large patches of various shapes, the bark is dead and dry and 

 clings tightly to the wood. By the shrinkage of the bark in dry- 

 ing the affected areas become slightly depressed and bounded by a 

 crack which separates them sharply from the adjacent healthy bark. 

 This gives the affected trunks and branches a rough, cracked, un- 

 healthy appearance. The trees are seldom killed outright, but 

 their growth is checked, often to such an extent as to hope- 

 lessly stunt them. 



" Body blight " has generally been considered to be a form of 

 the fire blight caused by the microorganism Bacillus amylovorus; 

 but according to Paddock^^ it may be caused by the apple canker 

 and black rot fungus, Sphaeropsis malorum Pk. It is not our 

 purpose to discuss here the nature of the disease, but to report 

 its common occurrence in the Hudson Valley. In all of the 

 counties within the district excepting Rockland, Putnam and 

 Westchester it was found in great abundance. In a severely at- 

 tacked orchard in Greene County, portions of several trees ap- 

 peared to have been killed by it. The branches were thickly 

 covered with the pycnidia of Sphaeropsis malorum. A few trees 

 after struggling along in a half dead condition for several years 

 finally died, apparently from Sphaeropsis. 



WINTER INJURY ( ?) 



In each of several orchards in the vicinity of Athens, Greene 

 County, a few pear trees died mysteriously. They seemed to 

 have died from some cause which killed the bark just below the 

 surface of the soil. The parts above ground appeared normal. 

 To the unaided eye no fimgus was present on the roots or on the 

 dead bark of the subterranean portions of the trunk. There were 

 no signs of insects. In all cases the dead trees stood in a heavy 

 clay soil and were scattered irregularly through the orchard among 

 healthy trees. 



31 Paddock, Wendell. The New York Apple-Tree Canker. Bui. 163 of this 

 station, p. 203. 



