194 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 3 



In a number of the higher valleys of Utah in which there is very 

 little trace of alkali but where oftentimes the ground water is close 

 to the surface, the apple trees of the Ben Davis and Gano varieties 

 suffer from a condition which is commonly known as "collar rot." 

 These trees often linger along for many years, new areas at the 

 crown dying and then gradually healing over as the tree recovers, 

 only to die in a new or larger area at a later date. This trouble 

 seems to be almost exclusively confined to the Ben Davis-Gano type 

 of tree and is occasionally met with throughout most of the apple 

 growing regions. The real cause of this condition is still in doubt. 

 It is usually first noticed just above the surface of the ground as a 

 darkened area of bark which often exudes a few drops of a dark- 

 colored, g-ummy liquid which later dries, and as the tree grows, this 

 spot becomes a sunken area from which the bark gradually rots away. 



The Grande Valley offers by far the worst case of seepage injury 

 to be found in the western country. As the water has been taken 

 out onto the upper lands, the lower ones have gradually been destroyed 

 by the rising water. Hundreds of acres of orchard have already 

 died and been removed and hundreds more are now more or less 

 affected. Here, as everywhere else, the alkali condition is no respecter 

 of variety or age. Every kind of a tree that occurs in the path of 

 the seepage areas is killed and many young orchards of only one or 

 two years' growth are dying. In fact, during the past season more 

 trees under the bearing age were killed than were those above that 

 age. It has been claimed that the higher regions, especially the 

 mesas, were above the possibility of seepage, but this season has 

 abundantly demonstrated that even these regions are not entirely 

 exempt, as yearling trees on soil which has never grown apples before 

 were killed in considerable numbers by white alkali within a few 

 rods of the top of one of the best fruit ridges, as is shown in an 

 accompanying photograph. "With this picture in mind it is easy to 

 see how it would be possible for trees to be killed by seepage on any 

 of the adjoining mesas of similar elevation. There may be, and 

 probably is, a small amount of the collar rot condition as found in 

 Utah, present on some of these higher lands since the Ben Davis and 

 Gano in certain sections seem to suffer more than other varieties. 

 But it seems a rather peculiar logic to reason that these varieties are 

 dying from arsenical poisoning in a valley where Jonathans are 

 scarcely affected, and in the case of the very next valley to account 

 for the death of a large number of Jonathans by arsenical poisoning 

 w^here Ben Davis and Gano are not affected. 



