100 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



grounds, out of about two thousand select and cross-bred 

 seedlings not more than twenty-five were struck with blight. 

 Two out of twenty trees, five to seven inches in diameter, had 

 only one small limb touched by it — either in 1914 or 1915, 

 when several seedlings of Pyrus communis, our common pear 

 seedlings, three to four inches in diameter, standing close to 

 these naturally crossed Chinese, were so killed by it that they 

 were dug out. 



It is almost impossible for us who do not live in parts of 

 this country where pear growing is on a commercial scale to 

 comprehend the enormous losses sustained by the growers from 

 this blight disease, such as sometimes sweeps over our Siberian 

 crab trees. Prof. M. F. Barrus, of the Department of Plant 

 Pathology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, in a bulletin 

 issued last January writes, "Fire blight is without doubt one 

 of the most destructive diseases of pears in this country;"' 

 "the losses from this disease amount to millions of dollars every 

 year;" "large blocks of nursery pears are at times absolutely 

 destroyed by it." 



It is most destructive to pears and quinces though affect- 

 ing the apple to some extent, as we of the west are aware. The 

 articles quoted offer no remedy except cutting out the blight 

 vigorously but add that careful cultural methods will help to 

 keep the disease in check. Prof. Barrus says: "When blight 

 infection becomes general in an orchard, efforts at control by 

 removal of infected areas may be unavailing." 



From the "California Fruit News" of San Francisco, 

 October 28, 1916, I extract the following: "Pear blight is one 

 of the worst enemies of the pear industry of California and 

 the Pacific Coast. Great efforts were made in this state to 

 check the spread of pear blight and find some effective remedy 

 or control, but little has been accomplished so far except in 

 cutting out and burning of infected trees," and adds, "Many 

 of our agricultural experiment workers through the United 

 States Department of Agriculture and the University of Cali- 

 fornia have devoted much time to work and investigation of 

 this problem." 



Referring again to this new species, identified as Caller- 

 yana, which has for the last few years been under test at 

 Oroville, California, and which seems practically resistant to 

 blight, I learn that it came from Hongkong, which has a tropical 

 climate, and it is of very questionable value for cold regions, 



