¥28 ANNUAL REPORT. 
BLIGHT, 
ITS NATURE, CAUSE AND PREVENTION. 
Since the fall of our first parents, in the Garden of Eden, and God said to 
man, ‘‘Curst is the ground for thy sake, in the sweat of thy face shalt thou 
eat bread, till thou return to the ground,” man has ever found an enemy 
ready to take from him his bread or his fruit. 
Nature. 
‘The common term blight, Webster says, is ‘‘decay or blasting, whether 
-occasioned by insects, fungi or atmospheric influences.” Woodward says, 
‘« This vapor blasts vegetables, corn and fruit trees, and is sometimes 
injurious even to man.” Johnson, in his Cyclopedia, says, ‘‘ Before effects 
were traced to their causes with the same care they are at present, blight 
was attributed to some mysterious influence in the air, to wind, or thun- 
der, because these states of the atmosphere commonly aceompanied this 
phenomenon. By investigation it is found to be parasitical fungi, of which 
a certain state of the atmosphere often contributes ” 
Cause. 
The nature and cause of the blight is so ltttle understood that in trying to 
speak of its nature, I have said about all that 1s known of its cause, which 
is supposed to be animalcule fungi or a fungus disease, 
It is one of those diseases of the plant, like the trichina and cholera in 
hogs, and yellow fever and the black plague in the human family—but little 
understood. 
The Remedy. 
While it is very important in most diseases, in order to find a remedy, to 
first find the cause, it is not always so easily done, and we are centent for 
the present, to find a remedy for this disease, which, if not checked, may 
cause the extermination of our fruit trees. 
For the purpose of protecting my trees from the borer, and making them 
more healthy, I commenced whitewashing my trees, bodies, crotches and 
well up into the limbs, with quick-lime and soft soap. This did not prevent 
the blight, for I had it every year in my orchard. Two years ago, seeing 
sulphur recommended as a wash, I used the lime and sulphur with the most 
favorable result. I use four parts of lime to one of sulphur, putting in the 
sulphur when the lime is at its greatest heat slacking—making this wash 
about the thickness of paint. I paint my trees about the first of June. An 
article in Purdy’s Fruit Recorder of June last, says that blight can be con- 
trolled with such certainty that itis a mark of shiftlessness for a man to 
allow his trees to blight. 
The common remedy recommended is the same as I use. One writer in 
the January number of the Recorder, says he has kept his trees entirely 
free from blight for the last ten years by using copperas water, thickened 
with lime or sulphur. 
Copperas may be a disinfectant without the addition of the sulphur. 
