ipi6 



BETTER FRUIT 



Page 21 



PREPAREDNESS 



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THE HARDIE MFG. CO. 



49 N. Front Street 



PORTLAND, OREGON 



Some New Facts Concerning Fire Blight 



By F. D. Heald, Professor of Plant Pathology and Plant Pathologist in the Experiment Station, Washington State College, Pullman, Washington 



FIRE BLIGHT of apple, pear, quince 

 and other hosts occupies a unique 

 position among plant diseases since 

 it is the first plant trouble that was 

 proved to be due to bacteria. Although 

 the disease had been known during the 

 early history of the I'nited States it 

 was not until about IScSO that the bac- 

 terial origin of the trouble was defi- 

 nitely established by Dr. T. J. Burrill, 

 then professor of botany at the Uni- 

 versity of Illinois. As a pioneer in 

 plant pathology his name is insepa- 

 rably connected with the early history 

 of tire blight. His discovery, made 

 thirty-five years ago, marked the begin- 

 ning of real progress in our knowledge 

 of the disease. A little later Mr. .1. C. 

 Arthur, in a New York Agricultural 

 Experiment Station report, extended 

 the work of Burrill and established the 

 bacterial character of the disease upon 

 a firmer basis. Since that time our 

 knowledge concerning the etiology of 

 Ihe disease and methods for its control 

 has gradually increased, and a volumi- 

 nous literature has accumulated. It 

 would neither be possible nor oppor- 

 tune to consider Ihe historical develop- 

 ment of our knowledge in detail, I)ut 1 

 wish to point out a few of the promi- 

 nent and important steps along the 

 pathway of our progress. 



In 1895 M. B. Waite of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture 

 showed the relation of bees to the 

 spread of blight, proving that the bac- 

 teria multiply very rapidh in the 

 neclar of the tlowers and are then car- 

 ried from flower to flower by the 

 insect visitors. The part played by 

 other insects in the dissemination of 

 the disease has been studied more in 

 detail by other investigators during 

 recent years. In 100(5 H. H. Wbetzel 

 of Cornell University Experiment Sta- 

 tion published his work on the rela- 

 tion of the blight bacteria to cankers 

 in apple trees, showing that these 

 organisms were capable of producing 

 cankers upon the larger limbs and 

 trunk of the tree. The way in which 

 the blight bacteria migrate through the 

 tissues of the host plant had long been 

 a disputed (piestion, so the establish- 

 ment of the fact by Freda M. Bach- 

 mann that they travel in the intercel- 

 lular spaces, rather than by penetra- 

 tion of cells, must be considered of 

 fundamental iniijortance. 



If we should sum up our knowledge 

 concerning the way in which fire blight 

 manifests itself we should find a gen- 

 eral agreement, the four following 

 ways being recognized according to the 

 parts invaded: (1) Blossom blight, due 

 to original infection through the nec- 

 taries by bacteria disseminated by in- 



sects which visit the flowers in search 

 of food. (2) Twig blight, due to infec- 

 tion through wounds made by insects 

 or olher agents in the succulent tissues 

 of terminal shoots. (3) Fruit blight, 

 due to primary infections through some 

 wound or migration of the bacteria up 

 the pedicel into the pulp of Ihe fruit. 

 (4) Cankers or body blight, due to 

 migration of the bacillus down fruit 

 spurs, from twigs or walerspi'outs 

 showing twig blight or by primary in- 

 fection through wounds. 



I am going to sjjcak briefly concern- 

 ning a certain phase of fruit blight of 

 apples and the occurrence of leaf inva- 

 sions as a new phase of the disease 

 which has only recently been estab- 

 lished by the investigations of the 

 writer. 



Fire blight lesions of a very chai'ac- 

 teristic type may be produced upon 

 developing fruits of the api)le. If a 

 young fruit is invaded through the 

 pedicel it will be entirely destroyed, 

 but if the infections arc primary 

 through the skin of the fiuit the be- 

 havior may be entirely difl'ercnt. About 

 the middle of June apples from some 

 orchards infested with blight showed 

 definite circumscribed si)ots, circular 

 in outline and varying In diameter 

 from three-eighths to one-half inch or 

 more. The alVected spots w-ere dark 

 brown or sometimes nearlv coal black. 



