330 
The Garden Magazine, February, 1921 
These spores are then carried by the wind and make their new 
home on any Apple trees within the radius of a mile or two. 
The result is the common rust of Apples, which affects both 
fruit and foliage. 
The greatest injury to Apple trees is due to the foliage infec- 
tion. A severe rust results in deformed fruit, a general reduc- 
tion in its size, and a great loss of vigor on the part of the tree. 
There is a very distinct relationship between the number of rust 
WHAT CEDAR-RUST DOES TO THE 
APPLE TREE 
These two specimens of York Imperial, though the 
same age — eleven years each, show marked contrast 
in growth and general sturdiness, due to the fact that 
one is the victim of cedar-rust, the other not 
spots on a York Imperial Apple leaf and 
the length of time the leaf is retained by 
the tree. 
The apple-rust has been reported in 
thirty-seven states, but its severity or 
seriousness will vary with circumstance. 
For example, on Long Island, where the 
expansion of the suburban home region 
and the country estate area is constantly 
widening, the purely decorative and orna- 
mental character of any particular kind 
of tree is its claim for consideration 
rather than any crop -yielding possibility. 
In West Virginia, on the other hand, another standard is in- 
troduced. Here York Imperial Apples are an important crop 
and there was failure in 1910 and in 1912, when the rust was 
extremely severe. True, the trees had plenty of fruit, but of 
such low quality that it was not worth picking. Actual fruit 
losses were from $2000 to $3000 per orchard and one county 
in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia lost $75,000 from the 
effects of the rust. 
The menace of the Red Cedars to Quince is particularly 
noticeable in the New England States where “quince honey” 
is a desired table delicacy. Some localities where Red Cedars 
abound, find it quite impossible to raise quinces at all owing to 
the damage done by the quince rust. While spraying does not 
seem to have been carried on so extensively with Quinces as with 
Apples, it is believed that the results of further effort in this 
direction will be found not to differ materially from similar 
spraying in the case of Apples. 
Complete destruction of the Red Cedar has been advocated 
without perhaps sufficient recognition of its sentimental — and 
ornamental — value! Commercially it is of little importance in 
most states; is seldom used as saw timber, though the larger 
specimens sometimes serve for fence posts and telephone poles. 
As a planting feature around suburban dwellings and on country 
estates it frequently figures importantly in the regions where it is 
native, and it has a value in landscape design that is peculiar to 
it. Yet in my opinion its use is seldom justified, particularly if 
planted within range of near-bv orchards which are thus un- 
necessarily subjected to the danger of traveling infections. 
Any one starting an orchard would be wise to select a district 
at least comparatively free from Cedars. 
If radical measures seem necessary, abolition of the Red Cedar 
“root and branch” wherever requisite is a possible and not a 
very costly operation. In West Virginia 1,114 acres were 
cleared for $552, or at the rate of less than fifty cents an acre. 
The acreage thus cleared was comprised of thickets, woodlots, 
pastures, meadows bordered with Cedars, etc., and may be 
considered as representative of many sections. 
West Virginia and Virginia realized that an educational cam- 
paign must be inaugurated before owners of Red Cedars would 
permit their destruction, and legislation to further such educa- 
tion was considered, but was not widely favored. Therefore, 
means of controlling apple rust by spraying was tried out over a 
period of several years. The results indicated that on sus- 
ceptible trees the spray, either bordeaux or lime-sulphur, is 
effective only at a certain period of the year. 
Cedar-rust may occur any time from April to June, depending 
upon moisture conditions and subsequent temperature changes 
which produce evaporation, but infection is most likely to occur 
during the month of May. Thus a wet spring insures more 
widely spread infection than a very dry 
one. 
Spray applications one week previous 
to infection proved worthless for control 
of the rust, while an application only 
one day previously proved very effec- 
tive; and applied three days previously 
fairly effective. The trees have when 
in bloom frequently been sprayed with 
lime-sulphur without arsenical poison. 
Such trees bore heavy crops of apples 
which amply justified the labor involved 
in spraying methodically and persistently. 
Since the spray, to do its work thor- 
oughly, must be applied very shortly 
before infection, the man who has both 
Apples and Cedar trees, or who has 
Apple trees near an estate on which 
Cedars are growing, must spray as often 
as two or three times a week through 
April, May, and June in order to obtain 
reasonable safety. This is a costly proposition but is the 
only proved method up to date by which to fight off the 
disease. 
Another way of raising Apple trees in the vicinity of Cedar 
trees is by selecting varieties known to be immune. In West 
Virginia there are two test orchards, said to be the only ones 
of their kind in the United States, where the degree of sus- 
ceptibility of the different varieties is being tested. These 
orchards contain four trees each of eighty selected varieties. 
