STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 67 



phoric acid in some form each contribute to its health and produc- 

 tiveness. 



It is a subject of disease as much to be dreaded as the small-pox 

 in the human family and equally as contagious. The black knot 

 •cannot be trifled with, and whenever and wherever found, should 

 at once be cut out and burned, or the owner will have reason to 

 regret its neglect in seeing the destruction of his orchard. 



The Hudson river district is a fair illustration of such neglect. 

 Growers allowed it to get beyond their control before effort was 

 made for its extinction, and to-day, wherever you see a plum tree 

 the black excresence often covers its entire surface. Plum growing 

 is a thing of the past. Those promising orchards are destroyed, 

 and until all are burned and the fields themselves renovated by fire, 

 it would be the height of folly to plant others. 



Wherever the plum will grow the black knot may be expected 

 and it must be watched. Perhaps science may yet teach us how to 

 render this valuable fruit impervious to the action of this disease. 

 Experience has shown that it may be quarantined and held in 

 check by the exercise of care at the proper time. Twice every 

 year the orchard should be carefully examined and every vestige 

 of it should be cut and burned. 



While an orchardist may thus protect himself from the disease 

 us it may develop on his own premises, he has no insurance as 

 against negligent neighbors on whose trees may be found the black 

 excn sconces without number, the spores or seeds of which may be 

 carried by the wind for several miles to find their lodgment on 

 fresh soil to the surprise and dismay of the most diligent and care- 

 ful cultivator. 



We believe that the only protection that can be afforded against 

 this most destructive agent to all growers of the plum, is the 

 enactment and rigid enforcement of a state law that shall make it 

 an offense punishable by imprisonment and a wholesome fine, for 

 any man to allow a tree infested wiih the disease to be found grow- 

 ing upon his premises, and that commissioners should be appointed 

 in every town at town or county expense, whose business it should 

 be to see that the law is executed to the letter. This for those 

 sections where the cultivation of the plum ma}^ be prosecuted in a 

 large way in the commercial orchard. 



Another serious drawback to the health and vitality of the plum 

 is the leaf blight, but recent experiments at our experiment sta- 



