CAUSE AND NATURE OF CROWN-GALL <>1 



"Another parallel case occurred in Ottawa county. Two or 

 three neighbors purchased one thousand five hundred peach 

 trees in the fall of 1895. These were set in favorable land the 

 following spring and were examined by the writer in June, 

 1S97. At the date of examination about 50 per cent, of the 

 trees in one lot were apparently affected with crown-gall." 



The seriousness of crown-gall in various and widely separated 

 portions of the country is certainly indicative of an enormous 

 annual loss to the fruit industry. In estimating the amount of 

 damage incurred by crown-gall, consideration must be given to 

 the fact that it usually occurs under ground and is rarely seen 

 except when the trees are taken from the nursery or when ex- 

 cavations are made at the crowns. The majority of diseased 

 trees live on year after year, but make less growth and in all 

 probability produce less and poorer fruit than healthy trees. 

 It is not sufficient for a tree to simply live. It must grow and 

 fruit abundantly in order to be profitable. The total annual 

 loss from this disease in this country in all probability reaches the 

 enormous sum of from $500,000 to $1,000,000, possibly much 

 more. 



REMEDIES FOR CROWN-GALL. 



So little is as yet known regarding this disease that few sys- 

 tematic attempts have been made to treat it by the application 

 of fungicides. My own experiments and those of Selby prove 

 conclusively that sulphur is of no value whatever. Bluestone, 

 when of sufficient strength, appears from the evidence that 

 we now have to be of material value, and when mixed with cop- 

 peras and lime it is the best of all materials yet experimented 

 with. Although in all my experiments with the paste pre- 

 viously described copperas was one of the ingredients used, I 

 believe that bluestone and lime made into a similar paste will be 

 found equally effective. L,ime is Recognized as the most effect- 

 ive remedy known in treating, or rather preventing, "club- 

 root," a well known and somewhat similar disease of cabbage. 



From the position and character of the disease, it is evident 

 that no remedy will completely overcome it after the orchard 

 is once attacked. The best that can be done will be to keep 

 the galls from forming on the crowns of the trees, where they 



