STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 167 



Mr. Baird reported the apples of Monmouth County very badly 

 affected the past season. Smith's Cider especially. 



President Pearson reported the loss of fruit and foliage. 



[From article by Prof. J. T. Burrill of Illinois, in Transactions of the Mississippi Valley 

 Horticultural Society, Vol. 1, 1883.] 



It is, however, no new thing. It has neither come into existence 

 in our time nor has it recently been introduced in our part of the 

 countr3\ Its dispersion over the world seems to be as wide as that 

 of the apple itself, and records now exist in the books of its occa- 

 sional prolific development and injuries over nearly a century of 

 time. Botanists have baptised it with several names, hard enough of 

 course, and collectors of specimens count it in the make-up of herbaria, 

 sometimes more than once, on account of the synonymical names 

 under which it is known. Now, however, the authorities are quite 

 generally agreed that henceforth Fusidadium dendriticum, Fhl., 

 shall be its true and only title in scientific parlance. 



Turning now to the supposed conditions which have of late influ- 

 enced the increased iiijuries of the fungus, nothing can be asserted 

 with positiveness, but all indications seem to point to atmospheric 

 and climatic causes rather than an}' special physiological changes in 

 the trees themselves. Some kinds of trees are much worse affected 

 than others, and this may be generallv true of special varieties, or 

 onl}^ during certain seasons, or at certain ages of the stock But nearly 

 all varieties of apples and pears have unusually suffered, at least in 

 places, during the last year. Even nursery stock has been singed 

 and stunted. 



It seems to me, we are first to look to the open and humid autumn 

 of 1881 as an important contribution to the severe result. During 

 this time the fungus certainly did vigorously develop on the fading 

 leaves, and especially on the unripened shoots of the year's growth. 

 As the spores ver}' readily germinate when moistened, it is not 

 probable that any of them survive the winter on the fallen leaves. 

 When once germinated, winter's vicissitudes soon put an end to 

 them as they do to sprouting seeds. But on the twigs, in the dry air, 

 both spores and mycelium successfully pass the winter and freely 

 grow in the spring. 



Having thus an unusual start last spring (1882) and unusually 

 favored by the remarkable lateness and wetness of the season, the 

 fungus became immensel}' developed, and, as we know, did immense 



