BLIGHT. 217 



have to irrigate, and you find it where they have fifteen inches of 

 rainfall in a year. I remember one year, five or six years ago, when 

 it did not rain in the winter, and the creeks were turned bottom 

 side up in the summer, and everything was absolutely dry. I paid 

 $2.50 an hour for a two inch flow of water and thereby saved my 

 trees. That year we had as much blight as any other. I will say 

 this, it is considered by the agricultural professors, and I think they 

 will agree, that they have found no remedy for blight whatever. 

 They keep it under control by cutting it off, by making sure of al- 

 ways cutting off enough of the blighted portion to cut off a part of 

 the healthy wood. They control it in that way. They have no remedy 

 for it. As far as the hidebound condition of the bark is concerned, 

 that occurs mostly in a wet season when, I think, the wood grows 

 faster than the bark is able to expand. Splitting, which has been 

 advocated here, I consider a good deal like the pruning question. 

 Every man has his own theory of pruning trees, and every man 

 believes that his way is the only proper way. So it is with this 

 question of blight, every one has a theory, and I believe the best 

 way is to adhere to one's own theory. I believe cutting will cure it. 



Mr. Nils Anderson : What do vou do with the limbs vou cut 

 off? 



Mr. Wellington: I burn them. 



Prof. Huston : I heard a remark just as I came in on this 

 question of treatment'. I believe we all agree that the tips are 

 tender and that blight attacks them. I have occasion to go over the 

 horticultural publications as fast as they come out, and the whole 

 scheme of orcharding in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys has 

 changed in the last twenty or twenty-five years, and that change 

 has been in the direction of producing soft wood in trees as against 

 firm wood. You cultivate an orchard, which induces a nitrogen 

 growth ; you apply barnyard manure, whose distinctive constitutent 

 is nitrogen ; you plant legumes in the orchard, whose principal 

 constituent is nitrogen — and it has a tendency to produce a soft 

 growth of tissue, which is very susceptible to attack. If you wish 

 to successfully attack blight you must take a broader view of the 

 question. You must take the whole question of orchard manage- 

 ment into consideration. The origin of blight is still a question, but 

 what we shall ask ourselves is : Can we adopt a scheme of orchard 

 management and tree breeding that will strengthen the trees and 

 make them more resistant? I think there is nothing more instruc- 

 tive in this study than the scheme of breeding wheat plants. It has 

 been clearly shown that wheat plants may be so bred that it is pos- 

 sible for them to resist rust. That has been shown for sixty con- 

 tinuous years. You must take a broad view of it. (Applause.) 



The Chairman : I agree with Prof. Sandsten and endorse what 

 he said. 



Mr. Underwood : You had better sit down then. 



The Chairman : I agree with you. I think it is a nice thing to 

 get all these theories together. 



Now I am going to call on "Professor" Philips. We have not 

 heard from him on this subject, and I am going to give him a 

 chance. 



