PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING 183 



Q: Then yon think there were just as many insects and fungi this 

 jear, but less apples? 



Dr. Beal: I fancy next year, if they had been well fought, we should 

 have better crops again. 



Mr. Kellogg: I would ask if the apple-scab that affects the fruit is 

 the identical thing that alTects the leaves? A: Yes, sir. 



Mr. Kellogg: I have always understood so. 



Sec'y Reid: Prof. Taft, one wishes to know if there was anything in 

 the elements that effected this result. Is it not a fact that there is con- 

 siderable in the elements, from one season to another, which promotes 

 or retards the growth of scab? 



Prof. Taft: If the trees are checked in their growth, and we have a 

 moist, cold period in the spring, particularly when it comes muggy, damp 

 weather, we are very likely to have scab, and we had those conditions 

 last spring. So far as the injury to the foliage was concerned, it was 

 noticeable throughout the season, and in unsprayed orchards the foliage 

 was a half to two thirds destroyed by apple-scab. Where the trees were 

 sprayed the injuries were greatly reduced, and the trees are in much 

 better condition for the next year's crop than those that were unsprayed, 

 where they lost the leaves, stopping the development of the buds for 

 next season. 



Mr. Kellogg: Then I infer that the only safe way is to get out the 

 spraying apparatus. Prof. Taft: That is it. 



Dr. Beal: Prof. Taft has touched upon a point we should insist upon 

 here. Most people somehow think the growth of these things depends 

 on the season entirely; that an unfavorable season is going to bring a lot 

 of that stuff on whether there is any of it around or not. I wish to combat 

 that opinion most thoroughly. They will not grow at all unless there are 

 spores. As Prof. Taft says, if the weather is favorable, if there is con- 

 tinuous moisture enough, heavy dews and muggy weather, those are going 

 to develop and get hold of the plants and work most thoroughly; but no 

 fungi will appear unless there are some of those spores surviving. The 

 apple would simply dry up without rotting at all except that there are a 

 lot of those things. You know fruit will keep perpetually in air-tight 

 cans. It would be just so outside if we did not have those various fungi 

 to interfere. 



