TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL MEETING. 57 



rest and fruit bud maturity, and a year of fruitage, when every other effort 

 is subordinated to this end. A climatic disturbance which destroys the 

 promise of fruit in " the bearing year" may yet allow the trees to provide 

 buds for next year's crop and reverse the heretofore recurring fruitful season; 

 so that no unfailing dependence can be placed upon bearing years to alter- 

 nate regularly for all time. 



I now come to the causes which have made the last two seasons 

 conspicuous failures over a larger area of apple-producing country than 

 has been known in many years. This area lies between the fortieth and 

 forty-fifth parallel, being central nearly where we stand, and running east and 

 west from New York to eastern Iowa. There has been a great deal of 

 speculation regarding the true cause of this unwonted failure. Our 

 scientific investigators, when pressed for an answer, have bent their 

 energies toward the discovery of some lurking disease the diagnosis of 

 which none but themselves could understand, and so escape the imputation 

 of ignorance through a dust cloud of terms. 



Early in June last year we all discovered that something was the matter 

 with our orchards; the leaves lost their luster, dried up, and fell off. The 

 effort at producing new foliage was weak and ineffective. In describing 

 the condition of the apple trees, in a letter to the Country Gentleman at 

 that time, I inclosed samples of the leaves, which that paper forwarded to 

 Prof. Litner at Albany. In answering some of my queries in the reply, 

 which was published as an addenda to my letter, the professor attributed 

 the whole difficulty to apple scab fungus. Prof. L. H. Bailey, in a paper 

 read before the cider and vinegar makers' convention at Rochester, last 

 year, gave this truthful appearance of the orchards in the fruit counties of 

 New York: "The failure of the apple crop in New York was never so 

 complete as in 1890. The trees blossomed very full, but the fruits failed 

 to set. The spring was exceedingly wet and mostly cool. Shortly after- 

 ward, the blossoms withered and fell, and the leaves of apples, pears, and 

 quinces began to blight. The rains were succeded by drouth, which, in some 

 sections, became very severe. During the early part of the season the blight 

 of the foliage increased, until in July, when I inspected the orchards in 

 Niagara, Orleans, Monroe, Ontario, and Cayuga counties, there were 

 thousands of acres of apple orchards which appeared to be dying. In 

 many places the quince orchards appeared to be scorched, and the foliage 

 of the pears was speckled; peaches dropped their leaves and fruits early in 

 the season. The blackberries, and later raspberries, in some sections, 

 dried up, and the bushes looked unhealthy. It is probable that similiar 

 injuries extend, in a greater or less degree, to all parts of the state." 



He also pronounced the disease a fungus difficulty, and gave a formula 

 for a solution with which to spray the trees to prevent a recurrence of the 

 trouble. It was evident to me that the trees were suffering from something 

 more radical than fungus, for a tree, with undisturbed functions, rallies at 

 once from such trivial attacks. Professor Bailey indeed disproves his 

 theorj^ when he reports all trees and shrubs alike suffering with the same 

 disease. I expressed my opinion in a letter to the above mentioned journal, 

 in August of last year, that the cause of the wide extended failure of 

 apples was due entirely to the climatic extremes during the winter previous. 



I have no doubt many of you remember the many warm days in January 



of 1890 — that we revelled in a tropical climate and congratulated ourselves 



that we were not induced to go to Florida or to southern California to spend 



the winter. Fortunately we are not left to our memories to prove this 



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