6i 



In the much hiiml^lcr sphere to which I invite your attention 

 for a few minutes the same holds true. The various parts of 

 cuUivated plants such as flowers, fruits, stems, foliage, and roots 

 which we value for various reasons are by no means so inherently 

 frail as they are often assumed to be. There is really nothing in 

 a piece of sound fruit that can cause it to decay. When it de- 

 cays it is usually because of some accident or some destructive 

 organism. Because we do not fully understand what is taking 

 place we say, *'Oh, it just rots." And as; the occurrence is a 

 very common one we have grown to look upon it as unavoidable. 

 Nevertheless within limitations the very opposite is true. So far 

 as anything in itself is concerned almost any piece of sound fruit, 

 even the most perishable kind, might remain sound for a long 

 period. Give it the necessary conditions and you may see this at 

 any time. Tin a pineapple or place it in cold storage and it will 

 last for a long time, and if the operations be carried out in the 

 right way, for a very long time indeed. The essence of this 

 preservation is preventing the access of outside destructive or- 

 ganisms, or so lowering their vitality that they are comparatively 

 harmless. 



So with timber. There is no cause within itself why a post 

 set in the ground should not last for centuries. The other day 

 a friend showed me a piece of timber that had served in the 

 foundation of an English house for over 700 years. It appeared 

 perfectly sound. The beams in certain substantially built 

 European chateaux have lasted for centuries and are today as 

 sound as ever, in fact appear to possess valuable properties that 

 less aged timber does not possess, as is evidenced by the fact that 

 makers of musical instruments pay high prices to be allowed to 

 dismantle these buildings and remove the old timber for use in 

 the construction of wooden parts of musical instruments. 



In the course of the few moments devoted this evening to the 

 blights of our crops it will therefore be profitable to note the ex- 

 tent to which the previous remarks hold true, for if it prove true 

 that in most instances our crop products are carried off before 

 their time, it behooves us to inquire into the causes, with the 

 object of ascertaining whether some of the losses are not pre- 

 ventable. Vou will observe that in many instances commercially 

 valuable remedies are at once suggested as a result of an investi- 

 gation into the causes of what were once looked upJ)n as "just 

 common rot such as we have always had." 



''Just rot" may be as old as time, but no matter how aged it be 

 it must not simply on that account escape re-examination in the 

 light of the new truths made known in recent times through the 

 investigations of scientific men. We must beware of thinking 

 that because a thing always has been it therefore always will be. 



I am wholly unprepared at the present time to give anything 

 like complete observations on Hawaiian croo blights. I can give 

 only a few notes on some of them. One of my objects will be to 



