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FALL TREATMENT OF PEAR BLIGHT. 



{"W N those orchards where the blight has 

 n been carefully and persistently removed 

 ^ and destroyed most of the trees have 

 been saved. In some instances the cutting 

 was not severe enough to remove all the 

 blight producing organisms, that is, the 

 diseased branches were not cut far enough 

 below the lowest discolored point on the 

 bark to remove the organisms, and as a re- 

 sult the disease remains in the tree and con- 

 tinues its destructive work so long as soil 

 and weather conditions are favorable. 



At this season it will be observed that the 

 blight is not spreading and the disease is 

 not advancing even in the partially dead 

 branches. It has been found however that 

 the disease producing organisms, although 

 inactive during the fall and winter, are not 

 dead, that they are capable of living over 

 the winter if the diseased branches have not 

 been removed from the trees. As soon as 

 the sap begins to i\o\v in the spring these 

 organisms again become active and it is from 

 these so-called hold-over cases that the 

 blight is spread. When the organisms be- 

 come active in the spring they find their way 



to the surface of the infested branches either 

 through exuding of the sap or otherwise 

 and are carried by the bees or wind to neigh- 

 boring trees where they lodge and produce 

 disease. 



It is clear from these facts that have been 

 determined by careful investigation that 

 there is only one way in which to prevent an 

 outbreak of this disease next season and 

 that is by destroying all the organisms be- 

 fore the sap begins to flow in the spring. 

 The only method by which this can be, 

 accomplished, so far as known at present, 

 consists in cutting out and burning the 

 affected branches. In many orchards where 

 the blight was so destructive the past season 

 it was found that little or no eff^ect had been 

 made to destroy this pest during the preced- 

 ing season. While the blight was not so 

 destructive generally in 1899, as in 1900, it 

 was present in most orchards and in many 

 isolated trees ; hence where it was not cut 

 out it accumulated and became more des- 

 tructive during the past season. — Small 

 Fruit Grower. 



