“MINNESOTA STATE wonmiouutuaL SOCIETY. 83 
sey tyastiaed, all in the same row. We suppose from this that those 
little insects are like other living beings, and go for the food that suits their 
taste best.. We remember when we first planted apple trees here, our trees 
were entirely free from insects, and our apples free from worms. At that 
time our small birds were very numerous, which I think protected ‘our 
ee dtl 
Respectfully yours, 
i JOHN Hart. 
DISCUSSION. 
Cause and Cure of Blight. 
' Mr. Jewell. Our friend Hart is mistaken. Scientists have not 
found any such insects. Some think it is a vegetable fungus, and 
probably they are not far from the truth. I used to be troubled 
with the blight, but have now got rid of those trees which blight 
the worst. I concluded I had no use for the Transcendents, and 
dug them up and have not suffered seriously since. Mr. Cook, 
of Rochester, lost heavily from blight, because he did not get rid 
of his old Transcendents before the blight came. Mr. Jewell de- 
tailed another case in which Transcendents had been the cause 
of great loss. Mr. Pearce believed that the ammoniacal emana- 
ations from a manure pile would prevent it, but the blight is 
beginning on trees subjected to these conditions. We can stop 
it because a tree is never attacked when not growing. So, if when 
beginning to blight, we stop the growth by root-pruning, or other 
means, we stop the blight. Last summer my trees began to blight, 
so I girdled them, taking off a narrow ring of bark nearly or quite 
around the trunk, and covered with wax. It stopped the blight. 
Mr. Pearce. Lsaw a German last summer who thought that the 
sun scalded the sap to produce blight. He thought so because the 
leaves began to wilt one very hot day. JI think the ammonia 
theory plausible, at least. I have no blight to speak of. I got 
rid of my Transcendents some time ago, but there are other.trees 
also very liable to blight. 
Mr. Grimes. Thus we see how liable we are to be mistaken. 
’ Mr. Harrison and others, some years ago, took a magnifying glass 
and found some insects on blighted trees, and concluded that they 
were the cause of the blight. 
Mr. Jewell. What advice shall we give to the man who has 
Transcendents? This is a serious question. Perhaps he has 
bought them of you. Shall you tell him to make a brush-pile of 
