BLIGHT, ETC. 399 



BLIGHT, ETC. 



(A DISCUSSION.) 



G. J. Kellogg-, of Wisconsin: Another thing I want to hear talked 

 about is the question of apple blight. It has been naore interesting 

 to me, perhaps, than anj'thing that has come up in connection with 

 apples and, perhaps, more discouraging. If there is any successful 

 waj' to combat it, I think it is a very important feature to discuss. 



Pres. Underwood: We have with us now our friends from Wiscon- 

 sin, Illinois, Iowa and South Dakota, and we would like to have 

 them join in the consideration of this topic. Mr. Philips, of Wis- 

 consin, is with us. We have lost Mr. Hirschinger, but I presume 

 Mr. Philips can interest us on this subject. 



Mr. J. S. Harris: Before Mr. Philips gets up to talk, I want to tell 

 you a true story. (Laughter). The McMahon blights very badlj'- 

 sometimes. I have some McMahons on level and very rich ground, 

 and, then, I have a row of them on a north slope on higher ground. 

 The trees on that level and open ground blighted so badly I thought 

 I was going to lose them, and in the row nearest to the woods there 

 was scarcely any blight. I attribute the freedom of blight of those 

 trees to the fact that they did not get dried out so much in the last 

 two or three years, and they had vigor enough in them to resist the 

 fungous growth that causes blight. 



Mr. Pearce: I want to speak a few minutes on this subject of 

 blight. I think an injustice has been done to some subjects, and I 

 believe it should be corrected. I am very well aware that there is 

 such a thing as trees being killed by freezing. We all know that a 

 fruit tree grows and is full of sap, and sometimes before the wood 

 is fully ripe in the fall we have a hard freeze, the bark is ruptured 

 and the tree is injured in that way. Thousands of trees were injured 

 this fall in exactlj^ that way. The same thing will occur again in the 

 spring when the sap starts, the bark will rupture and the tree will 

 kill. I had trees killed in Olmstead county all through June. They 

 were very fine trees, apples and cherries. The bark was entirely 

 bursted from the trees. That was the second day of June. I tell 

 you a fruit tree is of this nature: there is no diflference between ani- 

 mal and plant life, except plant life is not as high as animal life. 

 The tree grows, and before the terminal bud torms it begins to 

 ripen. The process is to fill the cells full of starch. The cells are 

 in the bark, the bud and everywhere else, and if they are full of 

 starch they will break like a pipe stem. If the wood is thoroughly 

 cured and no evaporation passes up through the bud and bark, the 

 tree is in perfectly normal condition, it is so dry it cannot freeze 

 much now. It works on the same principle as the mercury in the 

 themometer. It will contract. It will not burst out, but it is on the 

 same principle as a themometer, it contracts, and it does not make 

 any difference how hard it freezes, nothing will be injured; but if 

 the hard freeze comes before all the surplus nap is exhausted by 

 evaporation, the tree is sure to be killed or injured. There is no 

 question about that. I have got trees set on experiment in Manito- 

 ba; I have sold them at Grand Forks, and I have set them at Holden, 

 where the temperature has gone down to 60 degrees below zero. We 



