BLIGHTS OF CONIFEROUS NURSERY STOCK. 19 
This survival of the root after the death of the top distinctly sep- 
arates this trouble from those of the root-rot and sun-scorch types. 
The experience of a number of nurserymen shows that the disease 
can nearly always be prevented by using only loose, light material 
to mulch with and mulching no more than is absolutely necessary. 
Spraying with Bordeaux mixture just before the mulch is put on is 
worth a test at any nursery where mulch injury is frequent. 
RED-CEDAR BLIGHT. 
In western nurseries where red cedars (Juniperus virginiana L. 
and J. scopulorum Sarg.) are grown for ornamental planting there 
is a great deal of trouble with a blight of unknown origin. A num- 
ber of nurseries have nearly or entirely stopped trying to grow cedar 
on this account. The disease is described as sometimes working sud- 
denly over a considerable area of seedlings and transplants. Since 
attacks are said to occur when adjacent pines are perfectly healthy 
it is not likely that sun scorch is responsible. In large transplants 
all the needles on specific twigs and branches die at once, indicating 
a parasitic twig blight. In the cases observed by the writer there was 
no evidence of any constriction of the twigs such as Tubeuf?* has 
figured for Pestalozzia funerea twig-blight on Chamaecyparis men- 
2uestt. 
So little is known concerning the trouble that no recommendations 
for its control can be made. It is suggested that the nurserymen who 
have the most trouble with the disease conduct experiments separately 
with watering, moderately heavy shading, and frequent spraying 
with soap-Bordeaux mixture on numerous small-scale experimental 
plats scattered through their beds. One of these methods should 
prevent or partly prevent the disease. A comparison of attacks on 
treated and untreated plats should give information both as to the 
nature of the disease and the best control method. 
MECHANICAL ROOT INJURY. 
It often happens that trees which die in the nursery can be pulled 
up very easily. Examination shows that the root has been either 
broken or eaten off 1 to 3 inches below the surface of the soil. This 
presumably is done by grubs. This type of loss is mentioned merely 
to keep it from being confused with any of the types of blight 
described in this paper. 
CONCLUSION. 
A number of different blights concerning which little has been 
known do considerable damage to conifers in nurseries in the United 
States. The increasing amount of forest planting and the danger 
1Tubeuf, Karl von. Loc. cit. 
