LUTHER BURBANK 
germs to other trees and to flowers and fruit even 
fairly remote is thus assured. Not merely flies and 
gnats, but the bee itself may have a share in thus 
transporting the contagion from one tree to 
another till it infects every tree in the orchard. 
The nectary of a pear, which the bee may in- 
advertently inoculate, furnishes a most favorable 
medium for the multiplication of the bacilli. 
Thence they work their way from the fruit buds 
to the limbs. Once they gain access, through the 
links in the tree’s armor furnished by the buds, 
to the cambium layer of the inner bark, there is 
nothing to prevent the indefinite extension of their 
colony. 
A tree thus inoculated may soon take on the 
appearance of a tree scourged by fire. Indeed, 
the malady is sometimes spoken of as “fire blight.” 
ANTISEPTIC SURGERY IN THE ORCHARD 
The measures taken by the horticulturist to 
save his tree when thus attacked are curiously 
suggestive of the methods of the modern surgeon. 
Infected limbs must be amputated; local areas of 
infection in the bark or trunk or large branches 
must be thoroughly excised, including a goodly 
portion of healthy wood and bark to make sure 
of the removal of every microbe. Large wounds 
are then carefully disinfected with a sponge or 
bunch of waste soaked in kerosene or in a solu- 
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