PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-THIRD FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 41 



the citrus industry seems to be menaced by a foe demanding the same 

 heroic treatment that should have been applied to pear blight, and we 

 know not at what time some other pest may appear to work destruction 

 to some other branch of California's greatest industry. This peril will 

 ever be with us ; we can not escape it ; we will have ourselves to blame 

 if we have not learned our lfsson. We, as fruit-growers of California, 

 should stand together and h\ve placed in the office of State Horticul- 

 tural Commissioner the biggest, the brightest, the best equipped man 

 the world affords for that office to-day. We should fortify the office 

 with all necessary laws, with a sufficient organization, and back it up 

 with a public opinion that will tolerate no opposition. 



California is the great orchard region of the world, and we should 

 guard well its interests that our enemies may be kept from entering 

 in, and that we may enjoy the full measure of prosperity to which our 

 glorious climate and fertile soil entitle us. 



In preparing this paper the detail of pear-blight work did not 

 impress me as being what would most interest this Convention, and if 

 you feel that you would like to hear a recital of the way I actually 

 handle the blight, I feel prepared to give it extemporaneously at this 

 time or to any interested party in private conversation at a later time. 



MR, BOOTH. I took hold of the pear blight some four years ago 

 and I have been cutting ever since. Probably three or four feet below 

 where it is cut off the bark becomes black and dead, and if you cut 

 off the bark a sour smell comes out of it and the wood is rusty. What 

 is the cause of that? 



MR. REED. The cause of it probably is that the cuts were not deep 

 enough to rid the tree of the blight. 



MR. BOOTH. How are we to account for the blight being down in 

 the trunk six to eight feet from the dead wood? 



MR. REED. It went in through a sucker or where the tree was 

 injured in cultivation. You can not always tell how it gets in. Some- 

 times there will be a little flower start out and the blight will go in. 



MR. BOOTH. You understand those trees have bodies from eighteen 

 to twenty inches through ? 



MR. REED. Yes; I have seen little flowers come out on big trees 

 and in a few days the flower would fall off and the blight would go in 

 through that. There is nothing mysterious about the blight ; there is 

 a cause for every bit of it. 



MR. KING. I would like to ask, would the gentleman, from his 

 experience, advise that no further planting of pear orchards be made 

 in California because of the serious condition in the pear-blight situ- 

 ation ? . 



