20 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 417 



A number of inquiries concerning wood-destroying fungi have been received 

 during the past year. Probably this is a result of the nonavailability of wood and 

 wood products for replacement purposes. In most cases the use of treated wood 

 could have prevented fungus damage, but treated woods as well as materials for 

 treatment, are not always obtainable. 



Municipalities were greatly handicapped in carrying out tree disease control 

 programs because of the shortage of manpower. A program providing for the 

 treatment of trees by part-time workers was suggested to help meet the emergency 

 and has proved workable. In an effort to get cooperation on the part of the public 

 in municipal tree protection programs, public utilities arranged for the distribu- 

 tion of cards announcing Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station Bul- 

 letin 397 entitled "A Civilian Program for Tree Protection." Details of the 

 operation of the program were included in a report. The response by the public 

 was extremely gratifying, and municipalities and utilities have requested that 

 further study be given to the matter of recommending methods for educating 

 the public in street tree problems. 



Damping-off and Growth of Seedlings and Cuttings of Woody Plants as 

 Affected by Soil Treatments and Modification of Environment. (W. L. Doran.) 

 In cooperation with John S. Bailey of the Department of Pomology, especial 

 attention has been given to the propagation of high-bush blueberry and beach 

 plum by softwood cuttings, and papers have been published on those subjects. 1-2 

 Cuttings of blueberry rooted best if taken 2 to 3 weeks before the first fruits 

 ripened, treated with indolebutyric acid or indolepropionic acid, and set in sand- 

 sphagnum peat. The method is a timesaver as compared with the former use of 

 hardwood cuttings. Beach plum cuttings, treated with indolebutyric acid, gave 

 best results if taken when fruits were about one-eighth inch in diameter; and by 

 no method previously described has the beach plum been so rapidly and readily 

 propagated. Early July cuttings of Myrobalan plum rooted well after treatment 

 with naphthaleneacetic acid 



Manetti stock, for grafting roses, is not now available in sufficient quantities 

 and at the request of a large grower of greenhouse roses work on their propaga- 

 tion by cuttings was begun. Two-bud cuttings of rose rooted well in sand-sedge 

 peat after treatment with mixtures of a Hormodin and the fungicides Arasan or 

 Spergon. These fungicides added to indolebutyric acid in talc caused no injury 

 to cuttings of the several species with which they were used. In work with Law- 

 rence Southwick of the Department of Pomology, such use of Spergon prolonged 

 the life of unrooted cuttings of apple. Cuttings of hemlock rooted better if 

 taken from the north side of a tree, better and more rapidly if treated with 

 indolebutyric acid solution followed by powder dip treatment with indolebutyric 

 acid in talc plus Spergon. 



Rooted white pine cuttings grew about 5 inches, erect and symmetrical, in 

 their second year. 



Cuttings of most of the woody plants used rooted better in sand-sedge peat 

 than in sand-sphagnum peat. 



Late fall cuttings of Franklinia, Tripterygium and Marsdenia rooted well 

 without treatment; but the rooting of similar cuttings of Orixa japonica, Colutea 

 media, Indigofera amblyantha and a mulberry was improved by treatment with 

 root-inducing substances. 



» Doran, W. L. and Bailey, J. S. Propagation of high-bush blueberry by softwood cuttings. 

 Mass. Agr. Expt. Sta. Bui. 410. 1943. 



2 Doran, W. L. and Bailey, J. S. A second note on the propagation of beach plum by softwood 

 cuttings. Amer. Nurseryman 78:8:7-8. 1943. (Mass. Sta. Contrib. 496.) 



