BLIGHT. 213 



prevent it is to cultivate our orchards only a few years, and if you 

 start a new orchard I would advise you to plant only such varie- 

 ties as the chairman suggested, those that are not subject fo blight, 

 and take the highest elevation of your grounds that you have, and 

 then set them farther apart than you have done heretofore. I find 

 in most instances where trees are set in low places, where the soil 

 is more moist and the air cannot circulate so freely, that trees are 

 more subject to blight' than those planted on a higher elevation. 

 If you contemplate setting out an orchard I would not advise you 

 to plant Transcendent or Hyslop anywhere near other varieties, 

 because blight will travel from one variety to another, but' I don't 

 believe as some do that it will travel from fifty to a hundred miles. 

 That is no such thing. I think it can be found in any orchard and 

 in any place where those varieties are planted that are subject to 

 blight, and the only remedy I have found to be successful is to culti- 

 vate them two years and give them a good start, at least not more 

 than three years, and then sow the orchard down to clover — and 

 this is especially to be recommended for the Wealthy and a few 

 other varieties that are more subject to blight. 



Another thing, about cutting out at the time the blight starts, 

 I think that a pretty hard thing to do. In an orchard of any con- 

 siderable size it would probably take from a dozen to fifty men to 

 go through fhe orchard and do the work as it ought to be done, and 

 that would be too expensive to make it pay. You open the pores 

 of the tree at the same time you cut it. I have done it, and some- 

 times would not see any eflfect from it until the next' season. In 

 those I did cut I did not see any difficulty, only I think it would be 

 better to leave it until the next season. I do not believe it has done 

 any good t'o go to work and cut, as has been suggested here, from 

 three, four to six inches below the diseased portion, because it 

 would be too much of a job for anybody that had from 500 to 2,000 

 trees to go over the whole orchard and do the work as it ought to 

 be done. I believe it would be better to leave it until the next 

 season, and then perhaps you do not have to cut at all. 



Mr. W. L. Taylor : I believe in the old saying that "an ounce 

 of prevention is Avorth a pound of cure," because I think the best 

 thing to do is to avoid fhose varieties that are inclined to blight, 

 and especially avoid planting them in a blighting situation. Plant 

 your orchard on the highest possible ground. If you have hilly 

 ground sloping to the north, that is the best place you can plant' your 

 trees. Don't plant the Wealthy in the lower part of the field, but 

 on high ground, but your Hibernal you can plant almost in the 

 mud. Your Wealthy you must' plant on the highest ground you 

 have because it is so apt to blight. Some one was talking about 

 cutting out the Peerless tree. It does not blight on my ground. 

 I use it in place of the Wealthy, and I get as much for it as I do for 

 the Wealthy, and the people think they are getting the best Wealthy 

 t'hey ever tasted. I read Mr. Brand's statement some time ago, 

 and I immediately went to work and whitewashed my trees. It 

 made them look somewhat unsightly, but it made healthy trees of 

 them. During the years I practiced it I had no blight, but I notice 



