682 



THE EDITOR'S OUTLOOK. 



in general ; neither, perhaps, are there proofs to 

 the contrar)', although the presumption is against 

 the notion. At all events, we challenge the state- 

 ment, in the hope that direct observations may be 

 made. 



3. Insects are often held to account for the fail- 

 ures, but insect attacks are of such a nature as to 

 leave little doubt of their time and extent. Their 

 work is visible, and it usually appears after the fruits 

 have attained some size. In many parts of the 

 country the curculio is the cause of failure of peach 

 and plum crops year after year, and the devastation 

 of the codlin moth in apples and pears is well known. 

 But beyond these two instances, it is doubtful if in- 

 sects cause the wholesale failure of fruit crops sim- 

 ultaneously over large areas. 



4. Overbearing usually lessens the crop of the 

 succeeding year, and is no doubt the commonest 

 cause of failure of fruit. An overtaxed tree requires 

 time in which to recuperate. But such trees do not 

 bloom profusely the following spring, and the fail- 

 ure is easily enough understood. But in many parts 

 of the country where fruit has failed this year there 

 was a poor or indifferent crop last year. 



5. This year it has been urged that fungi may be 

 the cause of a widespread and complete failure. 

 This generalization explains many of the obscurities 

 which others do not, and it is abundantly supported 

 by facts. It is no doubt true that fungi spread more 

 rapidly than formerly, because of the greater num- 

 ber and continuity of orchards, just as contagious 

 diseases spread faster in cities than in the country. 

 In the small and isolated orchards of former days, 

 fungi and insects were confined within closer areas. 

 This phenomenon of rapid distribution, due to 

 greater extent of host-plants, may be termed coin- 

 miinal intensity. 



The fungi which have been connected thus far 

 with this breath of destruction are the scab fungi, 

 as apple, pear and quince scab, the curl-leaf of the 

 peach and the fruit-rots of the cherry and plum. 

 They spread with marvellous rapidity in certain 

 cool and wet springs, and as they exist year after 

 year in nearly all localities to a greater or less ex- 

 tent, it is not strange that under favorable condi- 

 tions they inflict wide areas. All this suggests a 

 broader study ot these fungi than mere life histor- 

 ies. Meteorological conditions, the general method 

 of their transport, the kind of cultivation and the 

 varieties in the orchards, and the relations of extent 

 of orcharding to the injury done, demand thought. 



But we doubt if the failure of the apple crop as a 

 whole this year is due entirely to any one or all of 

 these causes. Even the forest trees in many regions 



are unproductive, although they were not injured 

 by frosts, nor by insects, and we know of no fungi 

 which could cause the failure. In short, considered 

 in the broadest sense, we do not yet know why fruit 

 crops simultaneously fail over many states. The 

 injuries to fruit after it has fairly set can be seen 

 and traced, but this wholesale death of flowers and 

 very young fruits is an obscure problem. The 

 causes which we have discussed, except possibly in 

 the case of frost — which is easily observed — are evi- 

 dently too local or insufficient to admit of universal 

 application. Who is the philosopher to enlighten 

 our ignorance ? 



* * 

 * 



li'T'HOSE theoretical fellows," the 

 WHO IS THE i experimenters and professors, 

 cut a strange figure in the minds of 

 many good people. It is the especial function of 

 certain speakers at the winter meetings to ridicule 

 them and their " hobbies," even while commanding 

 their hearers to plant squashes in the old of the 

 moon in June, and to pick geese only when the moon 

 is on the increase, lest the feathers shrink ! Even 

 before one of the great horticultural meetings of the 

 year, a prominent speaker characterized the experi- 

 menters as " theoreticians" who would not be likely 

 to see the differences between varieties of plants ! 

 We had not supposed before that even the theorist 

 is deficient in powers of direct observation ! 



This much-abused word theory is used by these 

 persons to designate any wild, absurd or impracti- 

 cable notion. Time was that hypotheses of doubt- 

 ful character were projected by the teachers ; but 

 even then they were far fewer than is commonly 

 supposed. And even those theories which have died 

 of their own frailty have served an essential purpose 

 in the discovery of facts. Truth is, the teachers 

 are in advance of the practice and thought of their 

 time, and their work is never appreciated until it is 

 seen in retrospect. This is necessarily so, for the 

 teacher's function is to lead. 



But who, at the present time, is the theorist, in 

 the common meaning of that word ? Who plants 

 his crops " in the moon "? Who fears to touch the 

 heart of the tree, else he will kill it ? Who washes 

 his apple trees to close the pores and keep out 

 germs ? Who will not hoe his beans when the dew 

 is on, for fear of blasting them ? Who puts sulphur 

 into the pear trees to kill the blight ? Who carries 

 pumpkin seeds in his trousers pocket to make the 

 vines productive ? Who sows turnips on the "25th 

 of July, wet or dry"? A person can hear more 

 "theory" at one farmers' institute than at all the 

 agricultural colleges combined. 



