184 ANNUAL KEPORT 



the Southern part of the state, that, up to date, the blight had not 

 appeared there, and many believed there was something in the 

 soil and climate there that would free the Transcendent from 

 blighting. Now enough time has elapsed to determine that mat- 

 ter, and the inquiry I wish to make is: Is there any district in 

 Minnesota where the Transcendent crab has been in bearing more 

 than two years and where it does not blight? 



President Elliot. I do not know what the experience is with 

 growers in late years, but when we first began to cultivate the 

 Transcendent we had no trouble about its blighting until it got 

 to bearing size, not until the year that we had blight on every- 

 thing, then it was through nurseries and everywhere; but when it 

 first commenced my recollection is, it commenced in the older 

 trees. 



Mr. Grimes. We had blight for about three years and since that 

 time there has been very little on our trees. I have planted out 

 quite largely of the Transcendent crab, for I had great faith in it 

 when it was first introduced, so I stuck to it all the way through, 

 still believing the blight would only continue temporarily. I have 

 now, I think, one hundred trees or more, and I scarcely observe any 

 blight on them. They do not bear so abundantly as they did when 

 they were young, but still they bear considerable every other year. 

 I have made more out of my Transcendents than all my other ap- 

 ples together. 



Mr. Gibbs. I wish to find out if there is any blight now in those 

 Southern districts where it was not up to the time I speak of. Take 

 for instance, the neighborhood of Detroit Lake, and points along 

 the Breckenridge Division on the Manitoba railway from Eichfield, 

 and in the Northwest, is there any one who can tell us whether the 

 blight has appeared on the Transcendents? 



President Elliot. I think Mr. Fuller has reported some blight. 



Mr. Thielman. Mr. President, I would like to know if there is 

 any one who knows what causes blight? 



President Elliot. Well, that is a question on which the doctors 

 disagree. I don't know but what nearly every man that has given 

 it thought, has a theory of his own. Some attribute it to one thing 

 and some to another. 



Mr. Thielman. The blight I had on my Transcendents was in 

 the Summer time. They seemed to be healthy. They had young 

 shoots about a foot long, and after a heavy cold north wind the 

 leaves commenced to wither. 



Prof. Pendergast. I would like to say a word that would throw 

 some light on this matter of blight. In traveling in Massachusetts 



