302 State Horticultural Society. 



the foliage healthy. A whitewash spray will prevent peach leaf curl, 

 and prevent to some extent the swelling of the buds on warm sunny 

 days in winter. Whether it can be made of practical benefit I can not 

 say, though I have letters from growers in other states saying it has 

 been profitable. 



Maj. Holsinger. — I have several thousand pear trees and I find 

 them so badly damaged by the cold of last winter that they are break- 

 ing off at the bud. This is true of all trees ten years old or less. Those 

 cut down have made a new growth of six to seven feet, but they are 

 very easily broken off. What shall we do with them? 



Prof. Whitten. — When a man don't know he had better confess 

 his ignorance. This is what I am trying to learn. If it were not for 

 the blight, I would recommend judicious cutting back. Young trees 

 were so injured by the past winter that the only sound wood is a thin 

 shell of this year's growth. The new wood is not strong enough to 

 support the tree. 



C. Hartzell. — I want to ask my friend across the line whether he 

 took the advice of that Carthage man seven years ago and used calomel 

 on his trees? There is a very fine pear tree at White Cloud, Kansas, 

 which has borne more than one car load of pears and is still all right. 

 Salt the ground for pear blight. 



Maj. Holsinger. — I know a tree in Kansas that was planted in 

 1830. It is two and a half feet in diameter and still in good health. 

 From my early planted trees I have gathered fifteen or sixteen crops 

 and they are still in good condition. The winter did not hurt the older 

 trees like the young ones. The past winter did more damage than the 

 blight and every other disease that ever struck this country. 



I do not believe there is a sound and healthy tree in this country. 

 The inside will decay and the tree snap off. Every variety, even the 

 Early Harvest, is in the same condition. So far as salt is concei;ned, I 

 am reminded of our friend Slocum who, for years, claimed that 

 he had found a preventive of blight in salt. He mentioned it time 

 and again. After so long a time we noticed that he stopped saying any- 

 thing about his remedy. Upon inquiry we found he had salted his 

 trees to death. 



