CROWN GALL 5 



crown gall than budded trees, since the bacterial germs gain entrance 

 through the wounds made in grafting. For this reason orchardists 

 should use, where possible, budded trees. 



Naturally, nurseries have played an important part in the spread 

 of this disease. Often this has been done unconsciously. Nurseries 

 should be inspected annually by State authorities. Nursery stock 

 should also be inspected promptly before it is released to the cus- 

 tomer. Fruit-growing communities, and home orchardists in States 

 having no inspection laws, are always subject to the menace of 

 receiving diseased stock from infested nurseries and from careless 

 or indifferent nurserymen. Such communities should be doubly 

 aware of the danger of buying nursery stock from any but thoroughly 

 reliable nurseries. There are nurseries that are practically free 

 from crown gall and similar diseases, as some nurserymen understand 

 the nature of crown gall and use every possible means to prevent its 

 introduction and spread. The names of such nurserymen can be se- 

 cured from the State Entomologist's office. Not infrequently the 

 soils of nurseries are infested with crown gall from past years' crops, 

 and young nursery stock grown in such land is almost certain to be 

 infested to some extent. Unfortunately, at this time, crown gall 

 occurs in all agricultural districts of our State. It is safe to say that 

 practically all of this was brought into the State originally through 

 infected nursery stock. Crown gall is not only widespread in irri- 

 gated sections of the West and Southwest, but occurs also in all 

 fruit-growing regions of our country. 



Preventive measures.. Preventive measures are more successful 

 than methods of control. Orchardists and small planters should 

 purchase their stock from reliable nurserymen. Inspectors should 

 be authorized to refuse or destroy nursery stock that contains 

 crown galled plants along with healthy ones. The removal of galls 

 from the roots of young trees is not enough. Besides this, one does 

 not have any assurance that some of the apparently healthy trees 

 in lots with diseased ones will not develop crown gall later. The 

 presence of more than 1 or 2 per cent of crown gall in young nursery 

 stock suggests that the soil in which these trees were grown may be 

 infected with crown gall, and hence some of the apparently healthy 

 young trees may develop crown gall after being set out in the 

 orchard. Nurserymen should become acquainted with the infec- 

 tious nature of crown gall and use every means possible to keep 

 this disease out of their nurseries. The grower should be willing to 

 pay a reasonable price for nursery stock and insist upon receiving 

 healthy trees. He should have the goods inspected by a person 

 familiar with such diseases, as this may save him hundreds of 

 dollars besides the loss of years of time. 



Generally speaking, it is preferable to purchase nursery stock 

 from home nurseries where the plants may be seen growing in the 

 row and be examined before being dug and packed. Home nurseries 

 are less likely to have crown gall and similar diseases than larger 

 nurseries, since ordinarily they carry a less diversified stock and 

 they have more opportunity for extensive crop rotation. Pro- 

 gressive home nurserymen will live up to the ideals of their com- 



