364: BOARD OF AGUICULTUKE. 



Fourth. The disease is of bacterial origin, due to the presence of a 

 microbe. 



Fifth. It is spread by bees and other insects, Avhich carry the mi- 

 crobes from tree to tree. 



Sixth. The bacillus dies out when the growth stops and the wood 

 hardens. 



Seventh. The most effective preventatives are neglect of the tree and 

 the retarding of its growth. 



Eighth. Vigorous cutting out of all diseased wood, well below the 

 point of infection, is the only remedy that can be recommended. 



Ninth. Sprays and washes are utterly ineffective and useless as rem- 

 edies. 



While here is some valuable information and some good suggestions, 

 I can not see anything especially new. Seems to be the same old track 

 pursued to the handy place to take an inclined position and rest. Could 

 there not be some investigation and trial of some system of quarantine 

 which would confine the disease? If a "drying-out process" is fatal to the 

 germs, how about some chemical compound to be applied as a remedy? 



I think that as growers of food of the healthiest and of the most nour- 

 ishing kind for mankind, as citizens having capital invested, we should 

 urge upon our government to inaugurate some system of procedure by 

 and through which an effectual remedy may be woi'ked out for the exter- 

 mination of this disease. 



There seems to have been some commendable work done in this line, 

 but we are dissatisfied at the seeming spasmodic way it has been man- 

 aged. Let some parties be put at it and let them sticlc to it until the 

 disease is conquered. 



Mr. Apple: This paper shows a great deal of thought. It was an 

 excellent paper. I don't icnow whether there is any remedy for this 

 thing we call blight. If there is it seems to me that American citizens are 

 wise enough to have found it out. We do not know fully the cause of this 

 disase, and no physician can treat a disease successfully without knowing 

 what it is, and until we find this out we will be at a loss to know how to 

 kill blight. 



Mr. De Vilbiss: Early last year my trees were blighted very 

 much. I advertised in the paper for ten boys, and I took them and 

 went to the orchard and began war on the blight. We took everything 

 clean as we went. I instructed the boys like this: "Boys, be sure that 

 you cut beyond the blight, even though you cut the limb clear off." We 

 kept this up until we had cut off every bit of blight, and the result is that 

 this year we haven't the blight. We did not disinfect our knives, for we 

 did not cut the blight, but cut below it. Take this for what it is worth, 

 but it was all right for me. 



