PROCEEDINGS OF THE SUMMER MEETING. 57 



Mr, H. H. Pratt of Shelby: We are not exempt from curculio; we -have 

 faithful men who are steadily killing them by the thousands — did yester- 

 day, are doing so today, and will do so next week. I have had no faith in 

 spraying for curculio, but last week I used Bordeaux mixture with London 

 purple. The curculio were thick at the time of application, and a few 

 days later I caught six hundred from twelve trees. I believe in spraying, 

 as against all fungi, but not at all for curculio. To subdue this enemy, it 

 is evident that we must jar and trap; and so long as the plum grows here 

 we shall have the curculio. Mr. Pratt told of profits of $500 or so per 

 acre of plums; said he did not think black-knot was increasing, for he has 

 seen but little of it. There is much of what is called black- knot in the 

 wild cherry, but it does not seem to spread to the plums. 



Prof. Taft: I told you, at the meeting two years ago, that the black- 

 knot of the plum and cherry were the same thing. It is still believed that 

 they are, and I do not see how it can exist so in the wild cherry and not 

 be upon the plums. There certainly is cause for great watchfulness, and 

 if the knots appear they must be cut before the bark bursts and the spores 

 open. 



Prof. L. H. Bailey: The black-knot question is a very serious one. 

 The disease is in New York to an extent of which you have no conception 

 and is working destruction that is disheartening. All along the Hudson 

 river it is killing orchard after orchard, causing loss of hundreds of thous- 

 ands of dollars, making plum culture impossible where once it was a source 

 of great wealth. The disease will sometimes stay in a particular tree or 

 orchard, and not appear to spread; yet again it does spread, and as rapidly 

 as yellows, or more so. The only way to safety is to cut it out. It will at 

 times be quiescent, and again spread like a prairie fire, and be equally 

 destructive. 



Mr. S, D. WiLLARD of Geneva, N. Y. : While at one time we were free 

 from black-knot in the western part of New York, it has entered and has 

 swept away thousands of trees. For miles and miles along the Hudson 

 river there is ruin by black-knot where once were plum orchards that paid 

 $1,000 per acre. Now every tree is killed, and no one will think of plant- 

 ing a tree. The only way to be free from it is to cut out and burn. My 

 orchard is gone over twice each year and the knots cut out. The state of 

 the air, as to moisture or dryness, may be one reason for the spread or the 

 quietness of the disease. I have been in Minnesota, where they have 

 black-knot and pay no attention to it, and so must soon lose their trees. 



Mr. C. A. Hawley of Shelby: I cut and burn, as the only protection 

 against black-knot. If the ground is thoroughly tilled and the grass and 

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