No. fi. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 749 



With this view, both Profs. Biitz and Van Domnn, with many 

 other authorities agree. 



Not only should affected trees not be planted, though thousands 

 are, but radical measures should be taken to stop the reckless ship- 

 ment and sale of diseased trees, for without such measures the 

 country will soon be flooded with this dangerous foe to fruit grow- 

 ing, doubly dangerous because underground. In our dread of San 

 Jos^ Scale let us not overlook a disease equally dangerous. 



The following letter on the same topic was also read by the Sec- 

 retary: 



"Washington, D. C, Jan. 16, 1903. 

 "Mr. Enos B. Engle, Harrisburg, Pa.: 



"Dear Sir: I am in receipt of your letter of January 14, and shall 

 look forward to receiving the additional material. 



"Relative to the question of planting trees that are visibly affected 

 with crown gall, you will find, of course, a great deal of difference of 

 opinion among scientific and practical men on this point; some hold 

 that if the gall is very small and can be cut off before planting, 

 painting the wound with a little copper sulphate diluted in water 

 at the rate of about one quart of sulphate to 25 parts of water, that 

 the tree will sufficiently recover to make it reasonably safe to plant. 

 Among those who hold this view, therefore, it is the custom to throw 

 out all badly diseased trees and those where the trouble can not be 

 remedied as suggested, and plant the others, those apparently 

 healthy and those where the trouble can be remedied. So far as 

 the scientific study of the disease has gone, however, it does not 

 appear that the treatment suggested rids the tree of the disease, as 

 it nearly alw^ays breaks out again on the edges of the old wound 

 and grows gradually larger until the vitality of the tree is seriously 

 impaired. The gall after it reaches a few years age begins to decay 

 and offers an entrance for root rot fungi and insects, which have to 

 be considered as well as the weakening effects of the gall. The dis- 

 ease is so widespread through the country that it is difficult to find a 

 nursery where there is not more or less of it. It would, therefore, be 

 impracticable to boycott nurseries where the disease is found, if the 

 nurserymen do everything in their power to eradicate the disease 

 and use uninfected land as far as possible for the growth of new 

 stuff. We advise, unqualifiedly, however, the discarding of every tree 

 that is decidedly diseased, and we feel that it is very desirable to go 

 even a step further than this and discard every tree that shows any 

 evidence whatever of the disease. In such a case as you mention, 

 where 95 out of 141 trees show the disease, it is evident that the nur- 

 sery must have been very seriously infested with the trouble, and in 

 such cases we would discard the whole shipment. 



