396 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



and for seven years I successfully kept it off. Each year there would be 

 some formation but we very persistently kept it off. Last spring there 

 was none to be seen on my trees when they were in bloom having .taken 

 every particle off very closely. On the first of September every portion 

 of the trees was completely covered and the entire tops of all trees will 

 have to come off. 



So great was the attack that when I discovered it I had to abandon all 

 efforts to take it off. Even the twigs upon which the fruit had set were so 

 enlarged by the knot that the fruit on them was deformed. 



We had had three wet seasons previous to 1891, and while 1891 was 

 quite dry, the conditions had been favorable for a great development of 

 the fungus and the attack exceeded anything I had ever known. There 

 were old trees adjoining my farm from which I think the trouble was 

 spread over my orchard. My orchard is highly cultivated and fertilized 

 but I notice that uncared for trees were as badly affected in this locality 

 as mine were." 



The following statements kindly furnished me by Mr. P. Groom Bran- 

 dow of Athens, Green county, Xew York, indicate the former extent and 

 value of the plum industry in that region and its total devastation by the 

 black-knot. 



He states that, beginning at Cedar Hill about four miles below Albany, 

 the plum district included a belt about three miles on each side of the 

 river, and extended southward about thirty-six miles to Germantown. He 

 began setting plums for a commercial orchard in 1861 and at one time had 

 6,000 trees. Two of his neighbors each had about two thousand trees, 

 and most of the farmers went into the business to a greater or less extent. 



It was no uncommon thing for a steamer to carry from one hundred to 

 five hundred barrels of plums to New York at one trip. For four days' 

 picking in one week he received $1,980. In 1884 he netted §8,000 from his 

 plums, and the next year he rooted out over five thousand trees on account 

 of black knot, From twenty-five hundred young trees two or three years 

 old, left at that time, he thinks he has not yet realized over $250. 



One instance is cited of a young orchard set within a few hundred 

 yards of an old orchard that had been destroyed by the black-knot, and 

 within two years the young orchard had to be rooted out on account of the 

 same disease. 



Mr. Beaxdow further says that he knows of but one man who has set 

 any plums within the last six years, and this orchard is a failure. The 

 knot became the most destructive about 1869, and has continued its rav- 

 ages till the whole plum industry in this region is practically wiped out of 

 existence by it. 



Mr. Bkandow is in his seventy-fourth year. His whole life has been 

 spent on the old homestead, and as far back as he can remember the knot 

 has infested their plum and cherry; but when the trees were ruined they 

 were pulled out and new ones set again. He thinks that at least four 

 times in his remembrance he has seen these epidemics of black-knot come 

 and go. 



When the disease began to attack his trees about the year 1870 he com- 

 menced cutting out the knot and continued the warfare twelve or fourteen 

 years, and believes that he could have controlled it but for his neighbors' 

 trees which were infested with the disease. As it was, his orchard was 

 the last to go down. He says he did not practice burning the knots, but 



