Kill A /ihtssoiu Wllf (iihI Cniil,(r of ApjiJc Trees 



Kent and Sussex it is evident that the disease is increasing in intensity 

 year by year; in some orchards and plantations it has now assumed 

 epidemic proportions and is causing considerable loss to the fruit 

 farmers. 



The varieties which have suffered most are Lord Derby, Cox's 

 Orange Pippin and James Grieve. A Sussex fruit grower^ who supplied 

 the writer with specimens gave the following list of varieties affected 

 with the disease in one of his orchards in 1915: Duchess of Oldenburg, 

 Worcester Pearmain, Allington Pippin, Cox's Orange Pippin (this 

 variety very badly attacked), Early Julyan, James Grieve, Lane's 

 Prince Albert, Lord Grosvenor, Prince Bismarck, Chelmsford Wonder, 

 Newton Wonder, Domino and Lord Derby. In the same orchard the 

 varieties which the owner found to be free, or practically so, from the 

 disease were Charles Ross, Gladstone, Beauty of Bath, Lady Sudeley, 

 Blenheim Orange, Royal Jubilee, Bramley's Seedling, Warner's King 

 and Queen. Whether any of the varieties included in the latter list 

 are immune is at present an open question but some of them are known 

 to be susceptible, for Beauty of Bath, Warner's King, and Bramley's 

 Seedling have been found elsewhere with the disease, as have also 

 Duchess' Favourite, Ecklinville Seedling, Fearn's Pippin, Dartmouth 

 Crab and Rival. The same grower writing in May 1915 said, the 

 disease "is more extensive among apples than I have ever seen it before. 

 I reckon that in some varieties one-fourth of the trusses of fruit have 

 been ruined by it"; with reference to a similar outbreak in 1916 he 

 wrote, "The specimens enclosed are from Fearn's Pippin which is very 

 badly damaged. One fairly large tree blossomed all over profusely 

 and I am sure that nineteen out of twenty of the trusses of fruit blossom 

 have gone off like those enclosed," and in another letter he averred that 

 " Three-fourths of my anticipated crops of Cox and Domino, and half 

 that of some other varieties have been destroyed by the disease." 



Inspection of affected orchards and plantations in Kent during the 

 past season (1916) has shown that the experience of the Sussex grower 

 is by no means unique, for trees with from 50 % to 75 % of the flowering 

 spurs killed by the disease were not uncommon. On one farm visited 

 by the writer there were thirt}' large standard trees, about twenty years 

 old, of the Lord Derby variety which had produced about 300 l)ushels 

 of fruit in 1914 when a little of the disease was noticed: in 1915 the 

 disease was worse, while last season (1916) the crop w^as practically nil 

 and hundreds of dead spurs recently killed were to be seen on each 



^ I am indebted to Mr Wm E. Bear, Hailsham, for the information supplied. 



