172 LUTHER BURBANK 



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 sur- 

 geon. 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 kero- 

 sene or in a solution of corrosive sublimate, one 

 part to the thousand. 



It is merely antiseptic surgery applied to the 

 tree to combat a microbe closely similar to the 

 ones that are man's most malignant enemies. 



But, of course, such measures as these, how- 

 ever necessary, can by no means be regarded as 

 solving the problem of the pear blight. Just as 

 the surgeon of to-day attempts to prevent the 



