BLIGHT AND OTHER PLANT DISEASES, 
BY C. S. CRANDALL. 
BLIGHT OF APPLE AND PEAR TREES. 
Discussion of the disease known as blight is approached 
with some trepidation, and is only undertaken in response 
to what seems to be a growing demand from fruit growers 
for information concerning the disease. It has been pres- 
ent in the state for ten years, but never before have letters 
of inquiry and appeals for aid been so numerous as during 
the past summer. 
It should be remarked at the outset that I have nothing 
new to offer regarding the disease or its treatment, but shall 
simply attempt to bring together the main historical facts, 
and epitomize the work that has been done by those who 
have given the disease exhaustive study. 
Pear-blight, apple-blight, fire-blight, twig-blight are all 
names for the same disease; a disease which has proven the 
most destructive of any of the plant maladies with which 
the horticulturist has ever had to deal. It is not a new di- 
sease; it has been known and dreaded for at least a hundred 
years. The early horticultural journals abound in articles 
on the subject, and horticultural societies, ever since their 
inception, have found it a constant subject for discussion. 
But writing about it and discussing it failed to eliminate the 
disease or to make plain its cause. Discussion became so 
barren of results that the Western New York Society resolv ed 
that the subject should not be broached unless some one had 
something entirely new concerning the disease to communi- 
cate. 
As with all phenomena arising from causes unknown 
and therefore mysterious, pear-blight offered abundant op- 
portunity for the theorist. Theory after theory was put 
forth; some based upon the observations of practical men. 
