10 | ANNUAL REPORT. 
called on some of the sayans present to tell them the cause of blight. 
It would be a most fatal thing to allow it to be spread on the record 
that they had discarded the Transcendent. ‘1 “to sae 
Mr. Jordan had discarded six or eight varieties of the crab. 
Mr. Jewell thought the only remedy was to discard those kinds i 
which the blight originates. Had tried cutting off the tops of the 
trees. That retarded it somewhat, Trees trimmed in the spring of 
the year will blight worse. If trimming begins when the blight be-- 
gins, it would check it, but the labor is too great. The cause of 
horticulture is not injured by the people understanding the difficul- 
ties that beset*it. ’ 
Judge Baker wanted to know how it was that the discovery that 
Transcendents blighted worse than any other varieties was not made 
when they were selling at a dollar apiece instead of when they had 
come down to $50 per thousand ? 
Secretary Ford had traveled over the St. Paul & Pacific and Sioux 
City roads and had seen very few trees blighted. Had been in the 
nursery business among the first in the State, and had not yet had a 
tree blighted ; could not agree to discard the Transcendents and that 
class of apples. Blight was not liable to, stay with them forever. 
They had only a few apples in the State, that were reliable, and it 
would sound very bad to discard this variety. One Transcendent 
had given him more profit than all his others. . 
Mr. Truman M. Smith did not pretend to know the cause of blight. 
His experience was that trees in protected localities were more liable 
to blight than those in exposed situations. Electricity, he thought, 
had something to do with it. Immediately after a thunder shower, 
followed by hot sun, blight generally prevailed. He didn’t under- 
stand the remedies. He had Transcendents standing ten or twelve 
years on high ground free from disease, and which had borne as high 
as thirty bushels of fruit. In lower places they had blighted. One 
tree standing in grass did not blight last year, but one pruned late 
last spring blighted considerably. 
Mr. Brimhall did not know anything about the cause of blight. 
Had had very little of it. His land was a heavy clay. 
Mr. Gideon had Transcendent bearing trees in positions exposed 
to the sun that did not blight. Blight follows after showers followed 
by awarm sun. He believes the cause is the same as that of cholera. 
Both came originally from Asia. Crabs were an Asiatic tree. He 
had tried the process of pruning. Too much pruning did more harm 
than good. When the blight takes effect, young sprouts will put 
out just below, showing that nature had begun to work and repair 
the breach. 
Mr. Jewell scouted the idea of electricity having anything to do 
with blight. He had never known of a situation high or low that 
was free from blight. It had taken hold in those localities where 
trees had stood the longest and had been growing worse from 
time to time. Some had thought it peculiar to the North, and that 
the South was not subject to it. This was not so. He had observed 
the same thing on trees near St. Louis and other places. 
Mr. Gideon remarked that in Ohio apple and plum trees had been 
