2l6 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. C. W. Spickerman : I would like to ask the professor a 

 question. He said it was best to cut off the limb below the blight, 

 and then he explained that often the disease is introduced through 

 a puncture below the place where the limb is cut off. If you cut 

 the limb off below the affected part is it not liable to be affected at 

 the point where it is cut? 



Prof. Robertson : Yes, but they all ought to be protected as 

 soon as cut off to guard against infection. 



Mr. Andrew Wilfert : I have been troubled with blight for 

 several years, and I came to the conclusion it was all on account of 

 the Transcendent and that the disease was carried in the air and by 

 insects. I went to work and grubbed out every Transcendent I had 

 on my place, and for the last three years I have had no blight. There 

 was only one tree that blighted, and I cut that back, and none of my 

 other trees have blighted since. 



Mr. E. R. Hynson : I have had some little experience in regard 

 to blight on the trunk. I take some wax and wrap it up with a white 

 cloth and leave it on till the next year, and I have found that the new 

 bark grows out perfectly. 



Capt. A. H. Reed : I have a theory that I believe is true as much 

 as I believe that the standard apple has but ten seeds. We all know 

 that the Transcendent is the principal tree that fire blights, and we 

 know that it is a fast grower. We know the bark presents a shining ' 

 mark for the sun, and we know the tree never fire blights in the 

 summer time until we have that hot weather in July or August. 

 My theory is — and I believe I can sustain it — I have two Transcend- 

 ent trees that have withstood all this for thirty-one years for the 

 reason that they were set where the sun cannot strike the body of 

 the tree until the bark is thick enough so the sun will not affect it. 

 The theory is that the sap ascending the tree during those hot days, 

 this bark presenting a smooth surface to the sun is heated to that ex- 

 tent that it heats the sap, and as it rises to the top of the tree that 

 heated sap causes the ends of the twigs to blight and works down in 

 the limb. If you have but a few days of that hot weather the tree 

 does not blight so bad, but if you have several days or a week 

 of that kind of weather the tree will fire blight clear down to the 

 bottom. I believe I am right in this matter. I believe notwithstand- 

 ing Bailey, Waite and the other investigators, when you come to 

 study this thing you will find it is not a bug, bacteria or anything 

 of that kind, but it is simply the hot sun causing the sap to heat 

 that rises into the top of the tree that causes fire blight. 



Mr. Radabaugh : May I have the privilege to contradict the 

 captain ? I have a tree on my lot in the city that was put there about 

 fifteen years ago this spring and blossoms out very nice indeed, and 

 it is shaded to such an extent that the sun can hardly get at it suffi- 

 ciently to color the fruit, and this year for the first time it blighted, 

 and I think I caught the connection when the professor told us about 

 the bees. I think the little bees have carried the blight to the tree 

 this year. This makes the matter so plain to my mind that I believe 

 he has solved the problem. 



Miss Cairns (Wis.) : I did not understand clearly when he 

 advised pruning for blight? 



