proceedings of the farmers' club. 65 



Diseases of Fruit Trees. 



Wm. H. Pettis makes the following inquiry: 



I would like to hear, from your Farmers' Club, something upon the 

 following statement of facts: I have a fine, thrifty pear tree in my yard, 

 which bore last year, for the second time, about a half bushel of pears. 

 Last sjDring I washed the bark with ley and soap, wound a cloth round the 

 body of the tree to protect the bark from our hot summer sun, dug about 

 the roots, mulched with coarse manure, and to pay me for this trouble the 

 bark on one-half of the tree began to turn black before September, and at 

 the time the leaves were off, the bark on the body of the tree had turned 

 black and apparently dead. I expected, of course, the tree had " gone up," 

 but I see this spring that the top of the tree is alive, the buds are green, 

 and it seems now as if the tree would blossom and leave out as liberally as 

 it did last spring. If your Club can tell me how I can save that tree I 

 would like to hear the modus operandi of doing it. 



Wm. S. Carpenter. — The disease here spoken of is a very common one, 

 and is called the " frozen sap blight." It is very common in western New 

 York nurseries, and is one of the causes of the high prices of trees, the 

 proprietors lose so many of their trees. Some yeai's ago the pear trees in 

 Westchester county were very much affected, and some large old trees 

 were lost. Sometimes only one side is injured, and the tree lives; but 

 where young trees are dead half around the hole, it is best to dig them up 

 and replant, as they are not likely to make healthy trees, and no remedy 

 has been discovered. 



The Black Knot. 



I should like to hear some experience in relation to the black knot in 

 cherry trees. It was stated last year at one of our meetings, by a gentle- 

 man whom I have relied upon as authority, that when there was no fruit for 

 the curculio to deposit eggs in, they were inserted in the green bark, and 

 that produced tlie black knot which disfigures and destroys so many trees. 

 Recently the same authority tells us that the question is unsettled. Now, 

 after I have argued a year upon this foundation, I dislike to have it 

 knocked from under me. If the curculio does not make the black knot, 

 Avhat does? And what is the remedy? I have always recommended trim- 

 ming off all these excrescences as a very healthy operation for the tree. 

 Now we are told that it does no good to cut off the knots in the spring, for 

 then the insect, whatever it is that had its home there, has escaped; so to 

 do any good we must cut the limb off as soon as the puncture is made. I 

 don't agree with this; I think that the knots poison the tree, and if cut 

 away it may recover, and if left the tree will continue to decay and die. I 

 always find that the wood near the knots is in unhealthy condition, and I 

 think that cutting them off at any season is beneficial. 



Mr. Carpenter said that the best time to cut black knots was in summer, 

 but he agreed with Mr. Bergen that it will alwa3's be found beneficial to 

 trees to cut them away, either as soon as formed or at some other time. 

 He said: I have given up trying to grow plums after planting and losing 

 a hundred trees. The curculio destroyed all the fruit, and the black knot 



