SIXTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 25 



now there only remains to say in these annnal reports what 

 particular troubles have been unusually serious or harmless 

 anil to mention the few new troubles that occasionally are called 

 to our attention. The situation, then, for the past year, very 

 briefly presented, was as follows : 



Apple. The sooty blotch (Phyllachora poiiiigciia) was 

 unusually prominent, and certainly this year was the most 

 serious fungous pest of the apple. From my observations made 

 during the past five years, I am now inclined to give it this 

 rank permanently, for average injury caused. Last fall I 

 found it abundant in all of the small orchards and, especially 

 on the few scattered apple trees that each farmer has, — trees 

 that probably have never been sprayed. During the late fall 

 and earlv winter, it was almost impossible to find a first-class 

 Greening on the New Haven market, because they were all 

 badly disfigured by this fungus. Later wdien the cold storage 

 apples appeared there was much less of the fungus in evidence, 

 thus showing that orchards which received attention suffered 

 much less. But even where the trees were sprayed the past 

 year, I understand that the fruit suft'ered more than usual from 

 the trouble. The black rot or canker (Sphacrupsis malonim) 

 was another apple fungus that was frequently sent to the 

 Experiment Station for determination. One peculiar case of 

 this trouble combined with winter injury was called to our 

 attention from West Hartford. The severe cold of some previ- 

 ous winter had injured the limbs very unequally so that the 

 growth of the wood made during the following summers had 

 been uneven, resulting in somewhat one-sided swollen places 

 in the 1)ranches, often several of those on the same branch. 

 Through the dead twigs on these swellings the black rot fungus 

 had fre([uently gained entrance and produced cankered areas 

 in the bark. 



Grape. There seems to have been more injury from grape 

 rot the past year than for two or three years previously. I 

 understand from Professor Gulley that it required more spray- 

 ings than usual to control the rot. We generally lay the blame 

 for grape rot on the black rot fungus {Guiguavdia Bidwellii) 

 and this probably was the chief culprit the past year. How- 

 ever, T did fnid in some instances that the bitter rot fungus 



