214 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



I have some blight' coming on again, and I think I shall have to 

 apply it again to prevent the blight. In regard to that theory of 

 slitting the trees to prevent blight, I tried that myself and found it 

 worked all right'. The tree must get into a bark bound condition 

 before it will blight, and if it is split it will prevent blighting. What 

 we want is something to prevent blight. 



Mr. E. A. Smith : Yesterday the statement was made that 

 blight was caused by a congested condition of the sap. The tree 

 was sick. Blight in a tree is something like consumption of the 

 lungs. It is a case of bacteria. You may call it a case of congested 

 blood, thick blood or what you will. The fire blight is caused by 

 bacteria. In the first place, you cannot from general observation 

 and general practice determine whether it is bacteria or not, our 

 observation is not clear enough ; but men who have analyzed wit'h 

 the microscope the various forms know what bacteria are. Two 

 years ago Prof. Bolley, of Fargo, came to our grounds and wished 

 to experiment along those lines. He is a man of national reputa- 

 tion in his field, and his opinion is worth something. He worked 

 on this theory : consumption is cavised by bacteria, and the efifects 

 of those bacteria has to be overcome. He bored a little hole in 

 every tree he experimented with and inserted a rubber tube, with 

 the other end extending into a bottle of formaline. Two hours 

 afterward he would cut off the tops of the trees and analyze the 

 tips, and he would find formaline in the tip of the tree, showing 

 that the formaline had circulated through the tree. The trees on 

 which he operated at once began to improve and ultimately recover- 

 ed from blight. But here is the trouble, the conditions are so differ- 

 ent : if you do not provide the necessary amount of formaline it 

 has no effect, and on the other hand if you provide too much it kills 

 the tree. If it is not strong enough then it does not perform the 

 office it was intended it should perform. So while it is imprac- 

 ticable as applied to the orchard, it did show conclusively that he could 

 control the disease in an individual tree. Take the Transcendent 

 crab: three years ago it bUghted badly, and the past year it did not 

 — although the location might have something to do with it. Yet 

 the Transcendent this year in certain locations blighted as much as 

 the Wealthy. (Applause.) 



Capt. A. H. Reed : The experience of a man like Mr. Under- 

 wood ought to be worth something. I have had some experience 

 with blight the past season. I have two hundred apple trees, set 

 out in 1900, one row of Hibernal, one of Wealthy, one of Patten's 

 Greening, one of Peerless, one of Whitney and one of Transcendent. 

 As I said before, they commenced to blight in June. As soon as I 

 saw the blight commence on the end of the limbs and sprouts I not 

 only cut off the blighted part but cut out all of the sprouts and 

 small limbs that I could handily with my pruning knife, and where 

 such pruning was done there was less blight after. I am satisfied 

 that the only way to arrest the blighting of apple trees is by prun- 

 ing. A tree that has not sufficient root power to feed its top to 

 the extreme top branches is quite sure to blight, therefore I am 

 satisfied that blight is caused by the lack of sap food and not bac- 



