254 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Experiment Station says in bulletin 191: "Two years ago we 

 planted a row of apple trees affected with crown gall beside a 

 row of healthy trees. This fall we dug up a number of the 

 trees and some had galls on them and some had not. The trees 

 with the crown gall made just as good a growth as the healthy 

 trees near by, the root system seemed to be healthy and sup- 

 plying the top with all the nourishment needed for a strong 

 growth." While the New York nurseryman could not say from 

 his experiment that crown gall does no damage, he could deny 

 that affected trees "frequently die the first season." 



The Utah Experiment Station in bulletin 55 publishes the fol- 

 lowing statement: ''Almost sure death to a tree, without cure 

 or preventive, .supposed to be highly contagious, crown gall is 

 becoming one of our worst orchard troubles. " The above state- 

 ment is denied by the Alabama Experiment Station in bulletin 124 

 in the following terms: "Until experimental work now in pro- 

 gress has been carried so far as to warrant conclusions on this 

 point the crown gall of the apple now so common in many nur- 

 series of the Mississippi valley can be regarded as a suspicious 

 object and not certainly as a dangerous one." The testimony 

 of an ex-nurseryman may throw some light on this subject. 

 This man, who, some twenty-five years ago, was engaged in 

 selling nursery stock, said that there were galls upon the roots 

 of many trees at that time, and that such trees had been dis- 

 tributed to various portions of the state. Now if crown gall is 

 as communicable as many would have us believe, and if, as has 

 been stated, an infected tree is doomed sooner or later to death, 

 it is remarkable indeed that vast numbers of our fruit trees 

 have not succumbed to this disease long ago. 



THE TREATMENT FOR CROWN GALL. 



This is another controversial point. Many authorities advo- 

 cate cutting away the galls and burning them, but Professor 

 • Close of Utah says in bulletin 65 of the Utah Experiment 

 Station: "Even if the galls are removed when the tree is 

 planted new ones will nearly alw^ays develop." It is some- 

 times advised as a precautionary measure to apply Bor- 

 deaux mixture, but bulletin 93 of the Kentucky Station says: 

 "Bordeaux mixture applied to the outside can do little more 



