[faull] presidential ADDRESS 5 



than 1,200,000 of the survivors emigrated — mainly to the United 

 States — initiating an exodus that has cut the population of Ireland 

 in half. DeBary determined the cause of the blight, control measures 

 have been discovered, and to-day, though known everywhere, and as 

 virulent as formerly, it no longer carries with it the terror or the 

 menace of famine. 



Or citing a case from cereal diseases — thirty years ago the growers 

 of wheat and oats not infrquently suffered losses running up to 50 

 per cent or more of their crops through the attacks of certain grain 

 smuts. Brefeld after many years of patient investigation determined 

 the habits of these fungi. Means of control have been worked out, 

 at first clumsy, but now so efficient that with little trouble and at 

 trifling cost the seed grain can be so treated as to almost guarantee 

 immunity from these pests. In Canada alone the grain producers 

 have it in their power to save millions of dollars every year. 



To cite a third example pertaining to the fruit-growing industries — 

 prior to 1885 fruit growers could but helplessly look on when their 

 crops were devastated by mildews and decays, the meaning of which 

 they little understood and for the prevention of which no one could 

 give them advice. Take the grape industry as an illustration. I have 

 already referred to the plagues of mildew and phylloxera that all but 

 devastated the vineyards of France, threatening social as well as 

 financial ruin, and to the way in which Millardet saved the situation. 

 It may be a surprise to some to learn that in America, according to 

 Whetzel and Hessler, efforts to grow this fruit on a commercial scale 

 were "almost without exception unsuccessful" up to 1887, at which 

 time American pathologists for the first seriously turned their attention 

 to the study of grape diseases. Most of you are familiar with the fact 

 that the early colonists on the Atlantic seaboard, deceived by the 

 profusion and luxuriance of wild grapes, essayed repeatedly to establish 

 the culture of grapes in America, but invariably without success. 

 Groups of colonists even came to America for the express purpose of 

 practising viticulture, but their experiments always ended in disaster. 

 While the experiences in apple, peach and other fruit cultures have not 

 been so uniformly unfortunate, yet they, too, include numerous 

 chapters of failure. To-day, in consequence of the researches of a 

 corps of pathologists extending over many years, it is estimated that 

 75 per cent of the millions of dollars of annual losses from fruit diseases 

 can be avoided by spraying alone, not to speak of other control 

 measures applicable to diseases not amenable to sprays. Indeed, it is 

 safe to say, that it is now possible in every region in which soil and 

 climate are suited to produce any kind of fruit abundantly if scientific 

 methods are adopted. 



