62 CAUSE AND NATURE OF CROWN-GALL 



do the greatest damage. The galls which form deep down on 

 the lateral roots are of little moment compared with those which 

 come at the crown ; hence if an orchard be examined yearty 

 and all galls cut from the crowns and the wounds covered with 

 the bluestone-copperas-lime paste, there is no reason why a badly 

 infected orchard should not live and fruit for many years. It 

 is not reasonable, however, to expect that the trees will do as 

 well and fruit as abundantly as trees with perfect root systems. 



Mr. J. E. Bettler, of Mesa, Arizona, has been for the past 

 three years foreman of one of the largest and best almond 

 orchards in Salt River Valley. He has been very successful in 

 keeping the crown-gall from his trees by inspecting them once a 

 year, cutting off the hypertrophied tissue and applying the 

 bluestone-copperas-lime paste. 



This disease is primarily a nursery disease, and when the trees 

 are in nursery rows it spreads with considerable rapidity. Trees 

 in the first and second years of their life are apt to suffer more 

 than older trees, and at this age the gall usually appears at the 

 most critical point — i. e., the crown ; hence it is imperative that 

 trees be entirely free from this disease when received from the 

 nursery. 



The safest advice that can be given to those planting orchards 

 is to get trees from nurseries where there is no crown-gall. If 

 young trees already having galls upon them be planted, there is 

 not one chance in a hundred that they will ever come to successful 

 fruiting. Of far more importance than this, however, is the fact 

 that by planting a diseased tree one introduces the disease into 

 his orchard. If bundles of trees are received having a few with 

 galls upon them, it is not safe to simply throw out the visibly 

 diseased ones. There is no reason why the remainder of the 

 bundle should not have the infection upon them from contact 

 with the diseased trees, and the whole should be destroyed. 



The importance of this disease to the fruit industry of Salt 

 River Valley is such that a rigid inspection should be made of 

 all deciduous fruit trees planted. It is not sufficient, however, 

 to simply inspect the trees before planting. No nurseryman 

 should be allowed to sell a tree until his nursery has been passed 

 upon by a competent inspector. 



