62 OHIO EXPERIMENT STATION: MONTHLY BULLETIN 



One year from the bud is the usual age for peach trees. Apple, 

 pear, plum and cherry trees may be 1 or 2 years old. Occasion- 

 ally older trees are offered for sale but they should be avoided under 

 ordinary conditions. Year-old trees are slender, straight whips 

 which may be headed at any desired height and made to conform 

 to the idea in the mind of the planter. On account of their size 

 they are easily lost amid the weeds and easily fall victims to the 

 disc harrpw or the mowing machine. The 2-year-old tree was 

 topped when a year old and has a number of branches from which 

 to select the one desired for the head of the new tree. The tree 

 is larger, less easily injured and a little more able to withstand 

 unfavorable conditions. 



Not so much is heard now about the relative value of budded 

 and grafted apple trees. In certain sections,, such as the prairie 

 states, the method of propagation may be of importance but it is 

 immaterial to the Ohio orchardist. 



Clean nursery stock important. Above all, one should plant 

 clean trees. The three pests to be found most commonly on nursery 

 stock are crown gall, woolly aphis and San Jose scale. The last is 

 the least dangerous since it can be destroyed by spraying or dipping 

 the tops of the young trees in the solutions used for the regular 

 dormant spray given in the spray bulletins. Single scales appear as 

 circular dots about the size of the head of a pin, usually on a 

 slightly-sunken area of bark, the bark being frequently tinged with 

 red. On badly-infested trees the scales give the limb an ashy gray 

 appearance ; they may be rubbed off with the thumb nail or the back 

 of a knife blade. 



The woolly aphis is not so easily controlled and any trees show- 

 ing signs of infestation with this pest should be rejected. The indi- 

 cations of woolly aphis are marked swellings on the roots and some- 

 times grayish masses of aphis clustered between the roots. Some- 

 times a small root, when badly attacked, is swollen so that it 

 resembles a string of beads. 



Equally objectionable are trees infested with crown gall, or 

 hairy root as one form of it is called. This disease appears in the 

 form of wart-like excresences on the body limbs or roots of trees. 

 The most common location is at the base of the trunk where the 

 trees was grafted or budded. When this growth occurs beneath 

 the ground it frequently puts forth a mass of fine fibrous roots. 

 While sometimes the crown gall does not seem to injure the tree, 

 it often causes severe injury and affected trees are not fit for plant- 

 ing and should be rejected. 



