THE CONTROL OF FIRE OR POME BLIGHT. 



By W. H. Lawrence, Plant Pathologist and Fruit Inspector for Hood 



River County. 



The abrupt termination of pear production throughout a majority of 

 the fruit-growing sections of the United States, where the pear has been 

 grown commercially, has demonstrated the destructive nature of the 

 pome blight bacterium. In fact, some of the epidemics caused by this 

 parasite are so recent and the results so marked that no encouragement 

 to attempt to grow the pear in many sections where the disease has been 

 epidemic can be had. More recently the disease has made serious 

 inroads in some of the apple orchards m the section in which the disease 

 has done little or no injury heretofore. The condition of the apple 

 orchards in some of the locations at this time is not encouraging and 

 it is feared that a similar epidemic may occur among apples as has 

 occurred among pears during the past. The critical condition as it is 

 now being faced by many growers has caused the grower to enquire 

 with reference to detail Instructions as to a successful method of 

 accomplishing the desired results, namely, the eradication of the disease 

 from the orchard. 



The eradication of the disease in a section where the fruit industry 

 has grown to large proportions is by no means an easy task. The results 

 usually met with have not been very encouraging but they have fully 

 demonstrated that the best of results may be accomplished if the work 

 is timely and is done in a careful and painstaking manner. The topo- 

 graphy of the country, kinds of farming practiced, the various hosts, 

 both wild and cultivated that have become infested, the moral support 

 to be given by the Community, the possibilities of the assistants to do 

 the actual field work and lastly and the most important of all, the 

 strength of the law providing for the destruction of plants infested 

 with a dangerous and contagious disease, all have an important bearing 

 on the work. 



The topography of the country in a large degree renders the work 

 difficult if the infested areas are inaccessible, requiring a large waste 

 of time in reaching the localities in which the work must be done, as 

 is the case where there are numerous gorges and canyons in some of 

 the fruit-growing sections. On the other hand, where the conditions are 

 such as to admit of diversity in crop production, there are the inter- 

 vening ranches on which fruit raising is a secondary line of work, 

 which in most cases means that this line of work is considered as of little 

 importance and is largely endured since the fruit is very convenient 

 for the house wife in preparing the food. The farmer is not willing to 

 sacrifice valuable time in an attempt to rid this orchard of the disease 

 and to watch the same to see that no further infection takes place. As 

 long as such fruit trees live it is certainly true that they are very apt 

 to become the centers of infection at later dates or until the disease has 

 been eliminated from the section. It is also indeed fortunate to be 

 located in a section where the natural barriers do not admit of an easy 

 introduction of the disease. A wide ränge of mountains surrounding the 

 section on all sides is a natural protection with which few of the fruit- 

 growing sections are provided. 



