ns 



FJ.RST ANNUAL REPORT OF 



THE APPLE-EOOT PLANT-LOOSE— Eriosoma IvempliW 



Fitch. 



II Booptera, A] hulaa.) 

 [Fig, 64.] 



The roots of the apple tree are very often found to rot, and' Unas 

 cause the death of the tree. Of these rots there appear to be three- 

 distinct kinds. One kind is that popularly known as '-rotten root 1 ' in 

 Southern Illinois, and seems to be a simple decomposition of the* 

 vegetable tissue, analagous to the rotting of the root of a cabbage 

 for instance. Its cause is not clearly understood, though it seems, to 

 be a consequence of certain conditions of the soil. The other rot was 

 discovered the past summer hy Dr. Hull, of Alton, Illinois, and is a 

 fungoid growth, which, after covering the root with a thin layer of 

 while fibrous substance, causes a sort of dry rot of the root, and which 

 is common to both the pear and the apple. Some of the symptoms of 

 this rot are : a rather earlier devolopment or maturity of the branches ;, 

 an excess of fruit buds, and a shortening or thickening of some twigs. 

 Specimens of the affected roots were brought to Dr. T. H. Hilgard, of 

 St. Louis, for experiment, but all that he was able to ascertain was 

 that it enters the healthy wood in the shape of a brown stringy rot. 

 through the canals made by missing fibres. 



In a paper read by Dr. Hull, before the Illinois State Horticultu- 

 ral Society, at its 13th annual meeting, a communication was quoted, 

 from Judge A. M. Brown, of Villa Ridge, in which the latter gave it 

 as his firm belief that rotten apple tree roots were never caused by 

 root -lice, but by this particular fungus. With due deference to Judge 

 Brown's opinion, I have to differ with him most emphatically, fori am 

 convinced that tins Root louse does cause the roots to ?ot. I exam- 

 ined on the loth of May last, hundreds of young apple trees on the 

 nursery of Mr. J. M. Jordan, of St. Louis. Mr. J. had been greatly 

 troubled with root-lice on his young apple stock during the year 18 17, 

 and had dug up and thrown thousands of young trees into a heap, by 

 which mean-, he expected to kill the lice and prevent their spreading 

 onto new stock. He covered this heap with earth a foot deep, and 

 had the gratification of finding that nearly ail the lice had dv: - b 



