Tenth Annual Meeting 135 



the bark, where it comes in contact with various insects who 

 become infected by the gummy substance, and they carry that 

 infection in that way. In the center of the blossom there is a 

 Httle disk in which the egg is carried. The germs multiply and 

 spread into the blossom, and so on into the fruit, and down into 

 the tree. Most people are afraid to cut a pear tree when it is 

 afflicted with the blight, and if the trees are treated properly 

 perhaps they are justified, as this next slide will show you a 

 photograph of a tree with the top almost ruined, and yet it 

 recovered. The recuperative powers of pear trees are great. In 

 the treatment of pear blight there are several other things which 

 can be done besides cutting down the tree, but these things all 

 relate to orchard management, and it can all be summed up by 

 saying that pear trees, which are in a tarry condition, can best 

 resist, and any other method which will tend to starve the trees 

 will notably reduce the blight. That is an unfortunate thing, 

 and I do not, as a general thing, believe in it, but oftentimes 

 pear trees can be saved by some such treatment. To illustrate, 

 when the disease had started on a tree in a pot, the pot was 

 dried out. Another pot was watered daily in the usual way, 

 and, of course, the blight kept on growing and killed the tree, 

 but on the other tree the blight was checked at the very point 

 where it was when the water was withheld. 



Both the apple and the pear have what is called the apple 

 and the pear scab. I imagine those diseases have been con- 

 siderably talked about here also. The picture on the screen will 

 show you the typical appearance of the badly diseased fruit. 

 The scab, as you all know, is preventable by spraying. The 

 best time to spray for the scab is the only question, and, of 

 course, that is worth considering at the present time, but I do 

 not consider it necessary for me to go into details. It is more a 

 question of how and when to spray. Both the pear and apple 

 scab should be sprayed for when the clusters are opening out, 

 but when the individual flower-buds are closed, — perhaps about 

 May I. 



One of the worst diseases of the apple along this southern 

 area of cultivation is the bitter rot. That is a disease which 

 does not occur, or at least, if it occurs in Connecticut it does 

 not do any serious damage. The bitter rot was by far the 



