April, '09] JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 143 



of the whole country, it is important that every fact bearing on the 

 ■case should be made known at once. 



Briefly summarized, the bulletin sets forth that the apple trees in 

 the Grand Junction District of Colorado are affected with certain 

 troubles, which Mr. Whipple in Colorado Bulletin 118 calls "root 

 rot," and divides into two classes. One of these troubles Mr. Whipple 

 dismisses with this statement : One form, which is proving the least 

 destructive of the two, seems to show no preference for varieties, and 

 •confines itself to that part of the tree below the ground." The other 

 •condition described by Mr. Whipple at some length is apparently our 

 old friend, long and widely known as "collar rot." He says, "It 

 works exclusively on the Ben Davis and Gano," and describes the dead 

 .areas of bark, the girdling of the cro\\Ti, the early ripening of the 

 foliage and other characters well known as characteristic of this con- 

 ■dition. 



Doctor Headden, who had previously predicted that arsenical spray- 

 ing would be dangerous, made a trip to this section late the next sea- 

 son and was shown a tree, one side of w^hich had been killed by dirnip- 

 ing the soluble arsenite of soda into a ditch, from which that side of 

 "the tree received its water. From this tree the doctor took samples of 

 the root, trunk and branches and on analysis found that they contained 

 arsenic. He afterwards collected samples of thirteen other trees that 

 were dead or dying from the "root rot" conditions described above 

 and on examination found arsenic present in each one of them. He 

 also examined the soil under some of these trees and found arsenic 

 present in considerable amounts but in an insoluble form. As the 

 result of these tests the doctor comes to the following conclusions, 

 "which I quote : 



"I regret that I can see no other conclusion than that the corrod- 

 ing of the crowns, the killing of the bark, the staining and final de- 

 struction of the woody fibers, the early dropping of the leaves, presag- 

 ing the early death of the tree and its final death a few months later, 

 are caused by arsenical poisoning." 



Doctor Headden in this statement is talking about conditions which 

 lie states he observed "from near Fruita, almost to Palisade, and in 

 the neighborhood of Delta,'' and which he believes already involves the 

 principal apple-growing sections of Colorado and of which he says: 

 "It is also true that literally hundreds of trees have already died or 

 .are sick. ' ' 



If Doctor Headden is right in his conclusions as to the cause of the 

 •death of those ' ' hundreds of trees, ' ' he has given us a warning, which, 

 if heeded in time, will prevent a course being pursued by the fruit 



