APPLE BLIGHT AND WHAT IT IS. 379 



her favorite apple tree when poured around the roots. It is the 

 potash in the suds that keeps the tree healthy and comparatively 

 free from blight. 



Potash is the only known fungicide contained in our soil. It 

 has in the past helped us to produce the most perfect cereals and 

 vegetables and fruits, and I believe in the future it will enable us 

 to raise apple trees as hardy as the oak if properly applied. 



I have stopped cultivation in my orchard, and will apply potash 

 to the soil and will spray with potash or caustic soda. 



I will inoculate my trees to kill all germs in the sap, using 

 care and noting results. 



■ I hope to be able to report to this society at some future time 

 the results of my labor and investigation. If I fail I will report 

 failure, and if I succeed I will so report, and will be glad to give 

 to you the benefits of all knowledge obtained. 



TWO HOURS WITH LUTHER BURBANK; HIS WORK AS 

 AN ORIGINATOR OF NEW FRUITS AND ITS APPLI- 

 CATION TO MINNESOTA NEEDS. 



PROF. N. E. HANSEN, BROOKINGS, SOUTH DAKOTA. 



I do not care to go into a detailed discussion of Mr, Burbank's 

 work, as so many articles have appeared recently in the papers and 

 magazines, and Mr. Harwood, formerly a Minneapolis journalist, 

 who is spending some time in California, has just written a very 

 interesting book on the subject. So I will simply give you a pen 

 picture of Mr. Burbank as I saw him. It is harder to see Mr. Bur- 

 bank than it is to see the president of the United States. I will 

 tell you why. He has had over six thousand visitors and as many 

 letters this past year from all parts of the world. He is a kind 

 hearted, conscientious man and tries to do justice to all this extra 

 work. He is a' slender man, weighing perhaps 140 or 150 pounds, 

 a bundle of nervous energy, absolutely without mercenary motives, 

 and cares nothing about money. 



He was born in Lancaster, Mass., March 7, 1849, ^^^ ^^ 1875 

 came to California from Massachusetts to begin this inventive work. 

 He is the world's master in creative horticulture today. This ex- 

 aggerated newspaper talk you see about him is without his author- 

 ity ; the correspondents do this because they must make everything 



