26 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



of the cultivated apple, showing extreme variations in these 

 respects. But the part of the plant which has thus been 

 modified is an unessential thing in the fundamental life proc- 

 esses of the organism. The essential structures of the 

 apple, — those that are important to its nutritive and repro- 

 ductive processes, — are root, stem, leaf, flower and seed; 

 and man in all these centuries of culture has not modified 

 any one of these beyond the range of its natural variations. 

 We have the important result that the cultivated apple is a 

 plant which still retains essentially the normal structures and 

 functional activities of its wild ancestors ; that its normal 

 physiological equilibrium has not been disturbed. It is fur- 

 ther noteworthy, as a corollary of the above, that the apple, 

 like its wild ancestors, is a slow-growing tree, of great indi- 

 vidual vitality and almost indefinite longevity. 



Now, what are some of the bearings of these facts upon 

 the practical questions of apple maladies and their control? 

 First we may note that the long culture and wide geogTaph- 

 ical distribution have led to an enormous accretion of pos- 

 sible plagues in the shape of insects and fungi which may 

 prey upon it. I will not weary you by enumerating these 

 in detail, liut simply state that Saccardo in his list of the 

 known fungi of the world enumerates over 250 species 

 which have been found on the apple. This, 3'ou under- 

 stand, refers to fungi alone, without reference to bacterial 

 or insect pests. Yet in spite of this fact there are few plants 

 in common cultivation which are less liable to be killed out- 

 right b}^ such enemies. The borer, indeed, is about the only 

 parasite that actually threatens the life of an apple tree when 

 it is once well established in a suitable New England soil. 

 There are leaf pests, fungi and insects galore, which curtail 

 our apple crops, but they do not seem capable of really 

 shortening the life of the tree itself. Each year the apple 

 tree sheds its diseased leaves in the autumn, and appears the 

 following May aiTayed in a perfect coating of healthy green. 

 What would man not give for a like power of renewing his 

 youthful vigor ! 



Two other matters are worthy of remark, as showing how 

 intimately the diseases of the apple are related to its place 



