THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



is not vigorous. It does not make 

 sufficient growth in a year to enable one 

 to get a decent scion from it. It is not 

 favorably situated, however. My neigh- 

 bor got one at the same time, and it is 



a much better and larger tree than mine." 

 Mr. McKnight is Registrar for the 

 County of North Gray, and First Vice- 

 President Owen Sound Horticultural 

 Society. 



THE APPLE CANKER. 



From a paper read at the last meeting of the W. N. Y. Horticultural Society. 



^:::tt<^he disease found.— At 



last year's meeting of the 

 Western New York Horticul- 

 tural Society, the committee 

 on botany and plant diseases reported 

 the prevalence of apple canker in the 

 orchards in Western New York, and a 

 note on the subject from M. B. Waite, 

 Washington, D. C., was read. Last 

 Spring a request was received at the 

 Geneva Experiment Station from Chap- 

 in Brothers, East Bloomfield, N.Y., that 

 the dying of trees in their orchards be 

 investigated The visit revealed the 

 fact that of 80 acres of once fine 

 orchard belonging to one of the broth- 

 ers, 30 has been taken out, and one- 

 half the remainder were not worth a 

 shilling. Of the 45 acres originally in 

 the other orchard, only about 20 are 

 left that are of any value. It is evident 

 that this wholesale destruction is largely 

 due to the canker. The disease has 

 been noticed for the past six or eight 

 years, but it has increased rapidly in the 

 past three or four years. Twenty-Ounce 

 is most susceptible, Baldwin, Wagener, 

 Greening and King next. Talman 

 Sweet seems practically free ; trees on 

 lowland and on ground at all wet, suffer 

 worst. Trees in outside rows are freer 

 from canker than those in less exposed 

 situations. The orchard is 40 years old, 

 but the trees that are free from disease 

 are thrifty and in their prime. The 

 orchard has been cultivated far more in- 



telligently than the average orchard. No 

 crops have been taken, trees have been 

 pruned regularly, and the orchard was 

 thinned 15 years ago. It has been 

 sprayed from the first with insecticides 

 but not with fungicides. 



What It Is. — Inquiries concerning 

 the disease have been received from 

 various sections of the State and its 

 prevalence is reported in widely separ- 

 ated localities. It seems .to be common 

 in most parts of the State, and in a 

 number of instances, is doing serious 

 damage. It is also prevalent in the 

 Southern States, on the Pacific coast, in 

 Michigan and Indiana. The swollen 

 appearance of the limbs, the rough, 

 blackened bark, and in many instances 

 bare wood, black and decaying, are 

 characteristics of this disease. The 

 cankers are much more prevalent on 

 mature than on young trees, the latter 

 being evidently exempt from the attack. 



Old age and neglect seems to favor 

 the disease, though thrifty trees may be 

 ruined by its attacks. 



Its Life History. — Investigations of 

 the n^ure and life history of the disease 

 were at once begun. A series of cul- 

 tures were made from the diseased bark, 

 and various forms of fungi were obtained. 

 Two forms constantly appeared in Uie 

 cultures, and led to their being separated 

 and being grown in a pure state in test 

 tubes. One form proved to be a toad- 

 stool that is very common on dead bark 



t34 



