I04 THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



In this year the grape crop also suffered greatly. My 

 records in the annual reports show that for the autumn 

 of 1889, in the best grape-growing regions in our state, 

 not a single full cluster of grapes was picked. The same 

 trouble came in 1897; it was not as bad as in 1889, and I 

 think the difference lay in the fact that the rainfall of 1897 

 was during July and August, with a let-up in September, 

 while in 1889 it kept up tremendously for three months. 

 We found that 1890 was about an average year in regard 

 to rainfall, yet the records show that it was a bad year in 

 the sense that there was a great deal of decay in potatoes, 

 in grapes, and in other crops. I speak of this to bring 

 out the point: that during the wet season of 1889 there 

 was an accumulation of the germs of the disease, a great 

 "glut" in the market of spores, so that in an average 

 year, following a year particularly favorable to the develop- 

 ment of the disease, there is still a great amount of this 

 disease. 



In 1 89 1 we had a dry year, and yet there was still some 

 disease in the various vineyards, orchards and truck farms, 

 but much less; they had outgrown it to a certain extent. 

 You cannot judge what a year will bring by knowing 

 exactly what the rainfall is for that year ; you must know 

 something of the history of the weather for the years 

 before it. 



The rainfall for May, 1894, was 7.42 inches; for May, 

 1898, it was 7 inches. The rain came early ; now what is 

 the history of the fungus side of this matter ? In 1894 the 

 fire blight broke out in New Jersey as never before, so far 

 as the records go. There was fire-blight on pears, quinces 

 and apples. Up to this time, in that state, the Kieffer 

 pear was considered ironclad against blight. In the same 

 year the Smith Cider apple went out, and the growers of 

 that apple said, "We have had enough of it." 



Now, why should we expect any considerable amount of 

 blight in the orchard when we have heavy rains in May ? 

 It is the time when everything is unfolded, everything 

 most tender. The germ can get in and fasten itself most 

 readily in the unfolding leaf-buds and foliage. 



Knowing, as we do, the nature of the disease, bacteria 



