Water should only be applied when needed, and the need 
is easily discovered by careful examination of trees and 
soil. 
TREATMENT. 
From the nature of the disease, it is evident that when 
it has once gained access to the tree, preventive applications 
are useless. 
The organism is secure in the cell tissue beneath the 
outer bark; you cannot reach it with anygermicide yet known. 
There is therefore, but one remedy, and that is to cut and 
burn the infested portion of the tree. If trees are closely 
watched and diseased portions removed as soon as discov- 
ered, the difficulty may be checked without serious injury to 
the tree, but if allowed to spread until the amputation of 
large limbs becomes necessary the tree will be deformed if 
not entirely ruined. In years when the disease is extremely 
virulent, this work of cutting out is discouraging, and this 
has led some to object to the practice. Objections have also 
arisen from those who were unsuccessful because of careless 
and imperfect work. There is, however, abundant testimony 
from many sources that it pays to follow the practice closely 
and persistently. There is no other way of holding the di- 
sease in check after it has once started. 
In cutting out twig blight it is hardly practicable to pro- 
tect the cut surfaces; but where branches one-half inch and 
upward in diameter are removed, and particularly where 
the bark is cut away from blighted areas on the trunk and 
larger limbs, the cut surfaces should be at once covered with 
some protective coat. Lead and oil paint, shellac wash, and 
various forms of grafting wax, have all been used. I prefer 
the paint because it is cheaper, and less liable to crack and 
fall away under the drying action of the sun. 
In cutting out blighted portions there is one precaution 
that should always be observed, and that is the sterilization 
of the knife after each cut; if this is not done, germs maybe 
left upon the cut surface of the branch and the disease will 
continue to spread. 
The sterilization of the knife may be effected either by 
passing through a flame or by immersion in carbolic acid or 
other germicidal solution. In cutting, it should of course, 
be the aim to cut safely below the diseased part. The limit 
of the disease is not the well marked line of dead tissue. 
It is not in the dead tissue that we find active work going 
on. The very fact that the tissue is dead and discolored is 
evidence that the organism has sapped it of all nutriment 
and is through with it. The work of destruction goes on 
