360 State Horticultural Society, 



tation, and is immediately noticeable. This impresses the buyer, 

 and he is likely to be led into buying a second time before he learns 

 that the stimulus in growth does not bring in any additional fruit, 

 or at least, not sufficient to pay him for the outlay. 



On account of the prevalence of insects and diseases, various 

 impositions have been practiced upon the farmer. It has not been 

 long since our people were humbugged into buying devices for trap- 

 ping certain fruit insects. Of course, this method proved to be a 

 rank humbug. Formerly, special materials were sold for com- 

 •bating fruit diseases, but these, happily, are found less and less 

 year by year. Sometimes these so-called remedial agents contain 

 sulphur or some other material that is really good as fungicide, but 

 the prices were always extravagant. 



There is one humbug that it seems the people will never have 

 enough of. Reference is made to the various remedies for pear 

 blight. Pear blight being to the uninitiated a mysterious affection, 

 has led to no end of speculation among those who do not understand 

 its nature, and thus they have fallen ready victims to the smooth 

 tongues of every traveling faker who told them a plausible story. 



It is pleasant to recall that the people seem to be progressing 

 along many lines and are no longer victims to some of the old fakes, 

 but the pear blight humbug seems to catch them still. I will cite one 

 specific case. It has been but a short time since we received 

 inquiries from several parties about the same time, asking about 

 the value of a certain remedy against pear blight. The remedy con- 

 sisted in boring a hole in the body of the tree and inserting calomel 

 or some other material. Some of the parties stated that neighbors 

 of theirs had tried this method, and that the pear blight, which 

 was unusually bad everywhere that year, had immediately stopped. 

 Now, it happened that the pear trees on the experimental grounds 

 were blighting very badly that year also, and, further, that almost 

 on the exact date mentioned by the correspondents, the pear blight 

 with us stopped, too. We were experimenting very extensively 

 with this disease that season, and had occasion to note that it did 

 stop at a particular time. While I do not know what caused it to 

 stop, it is of interest to state that it must have been due to certain 

 weather conditions. The important thing about the matter is, that 

 the parties who had tried the absurd remedy mentioned, thought 

 that the treatment had stopped the blight, whereas it certainly had 

 nothing to do with it. This example will serve to show how even 

 intelligent farmers may be misled, and, of course, the traveling 

 fakir takes full advantage of such a situation. — Mo, Agricultural 

 Farmer, Columbia, Mo. 



