DISEASES OF FRUIT TREES. 121 



done until quite hard frosts comes. If done sooner there is 

 danger that the shoots may be smothered and decay if the sea- 

 son should be mild. 



The covering should not be removed until after the first of 

 April. With a bed or border of hardy roses and one of ever- 

 bloomers, and a Rambler and a Prairie Queen clambering over 

 the porch or treUis you will in truth say: 



"Roses alw^ays roses fair, 

 What vv^ith roses can compare? 

 Nature Crov^ns the roses stem 

 With her choicest diadem." 



DISEASES OF FRUIT TREES. 



VAL. KEYSER, LINCOLN. 



In considering the diseases of our common fruit trees we in- 

 clude, of course, the diseases of the fruit which the tree pro- 

 duces. The subject is entirely too large to permit one to give 

 anything like detailed description of each disease; therefore I 

 shall try to take up briefly only a few of the most important and 

 the most troublesome diseases of each of the common fruit 

 trees. 



The botanical study of diseases is very interesting, and it has 

 occurred to me that the pathologist is apt to attribute a great 

 many things to a plant disease for which that particular disease 

 may not be at all accountable. The death of a fruit tree may 

 be due to several causes other than plant diseases. Likewise 

 the failure on the part of the tree to produce a fruit crop is 

 probably as often due to other causes as it is to any particular 

 disease. We may find unfavorable climatic conditions or un- 

 favorable soil conditions, mechanical injury by winds, hailstorms 

 or beating rains, also injury by insects and rodents, and self- 

 sterility of varieties may also play an important part. Any or 

 all of these conditions may be the real cause of the death of the 

 tree or its failure to fruit, even when it is at the same time 

 seriously affected with disease. 



