470 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



BEES AS BLIGHT DISTRIBUTORS. 



I HAVE thoroughly worked out the ques- 

 tion relative to bees carrying blight. 

 -^ The conclusion reached is that bees 

 carry pear blight extensively, and, with other 

 insects, are the principal or almost the only 

 agency of distribution of the germs. The 

 occurrence of the blight on the blossoms in 

 great quantities and the great rapidity with 

 which the disease spreads from flower to 

 flower indicate a normal and very effective 

 method of distribution. The germs were 

 found growing freel}' in the nectar of the 

 blossoms. 



Bees were seen repeatedly visiting the in- 

 fected flowers, and some were caught taking 

 infected nectar, and by means of plant cul- 

 tures the pear blight germs were isolated 

 from their mouth parts. By covering parts 

 of the trees with sacks of various kinds of 

 material, including mosquito netting, and 

 then artificially infecting certain flowers on 

 the tree, the blight was observed to spread 

 very freely over the uninfected and uncovered 

 blossoms, but was entirely absent in the 

 blossoms covered by mosquito netting. 



Blossoms were infected and at once cov- 

 ered with sacks and the blight in such cases 

 was retained in the infected blossoms. 

 Pear blight germs died very soon after being 

 dried up, and lived for only a brief period 

 on exposure to weather conditions out of 

 doors, hence they cannot live in dust and be 

 blown around to any great extent by the 

 wind. Pear blight virus, particularly that 

 which occurs on the blossoms, is a very 

 sticky substance, and is readily carried by 

 insects, birds or other animals, but cannot 

 be blown by the wind. 



It may also be well to state that as a re- 

 sult of this serious charge against bees, I 

 was led to carry on an extensive series of 

 experiments in the pollination of pomaceous 

 fruits, and as a result of these I found that 

 bees are indispensable to the pollination and 

 setting of most of our pomaceous fruits, 

 hence they should not be destroyed, as some 

 growers think. They simply carry the 

 pear blight incidentally while performing an 

 important and necessary function. — Ameri- 

 can Asr^iciilturist. 



FALL PLANTING TREES 



N the question of whether it is better 

 to plant fruit trees in fall or spring 

 Professor F. A. Waugh, of the Ver-. 

 mont Experiment Station, says that one time 

 is just as good as another providing the 

 soil is in good condition and the trees are 

 all right. 



There are some advantages in setting 

 trees in the fall, the principal one being that 

 there is commonly more time for it at that 

 season. There is always a rush of work in 

 the spring, but at this time of the year farm 

 operations are less pressing. Sometimes 

 also the trees can be had in better condition 

 in the fall. Usually prices are slightly lower 

 for nursery stock. Furthermore when fall 

 planting is really successful the trees are apt 



to do better than when spring planted. 

 They become established to some extent 

 during the winter, and are all ready to start 

 with the first growing weather in spring. 



The chief requirement of fall planting is 

 good soil in a state of high cultivation. 

 Raw, lumpy, soddy soil will not answer. 

 Positions in which water stands will not do 

 for fall planting. (In fact trees should never 

 be set in such places.) Where the soil is 

 not light and well drained it is liable to 

 freeze and heave, thus doing much injury 

 to young trees. 



But if the soil is right, and the trees are 

 right and the man is ready to plant, fall 

 setting of fruit trees is nearly always advis- 

 able. 



