Jan. io, 1914 
Some Diseases of Pecans 
305 
lems having to do with living things. Partly because of this complexity 
most problems of disease control are problems of “better and worse” 
rather than of 4 ‘good and bad,” for very few varieties prove to be abso¬ 
lutely immune, and very few artificial methods of control are entirely 
effective. 
The present paper deals only with certain distinct and more or less 
troublesome fungous and bacterial diseases of pecans. 1 For the most 
part these studies were carried on during the years 1911 and 1912. 
NURSERY-BLIGHT 
[Caused by Phyllosticta caryae Peck] 
HISTORY AND DISTRIBUTION 
Nursery-blight is one of the worst known diseases of the pecan to 
affect nursery seedling trees. However, in spite of the fact that young 
trees are often defoliated from this cause by midsummer, no definite 
investigation has hitherto been carried out and published, so far as 
could be ascertained. This may be due partly to the fact that the pecan 
nursery business is of comparatively recent origin and partly to the 
obscurity of the causal fungus. 
The distribution of this disease has been found to correspond very 
closely with that of the pecan scab and the brown leaf-spot. Affected 
specimens have been received from most of the pecan-growing States, 
and personal observations have further demonstrated its presence at 
Petersburg, Va.; Orangeburg, Summerton, and Charleston, S. C.; 
Albany, De Witt, Hardaway, Baconton, Thomasville, and Cairo, Ga.; 
Tallahassee, Newport, Monticello, Glen St. Mary, Jacksonville, St. Augus¬ 
tine, Palatka, and Belleview, Fla.; New Orleans, La.; and at San Anto¬ 
nio, Boeme, Kerrville, Waco, and San Saba, Tex. Strains of the fungus 
obtained from as widely separated points as Florida and Texas have 
been similar in cultural characters and have caused the same symptoms 
upon artificial inoculation, thus demonstrating the disease in both cases 
to be of the same origin. Wherever observations have been made the 
disease has for the most part been found to affect young trees, and by 
far the greatest injury has been to the 1 and 2 year old nursery stock. 2 
Mature trees are seldom seriously injured. 
1 No discussion of the scab, a serious disease of pecans, is included in the present paper. 
2 A very effective control of the nursery-blight with Bordeaux mixture was obtained in two different 
localities during the season of 1911, and there appears to be little reason to doubt that it will prove effica¬ 
cious in other localities and seasons. The quantity of spray material used and the cost of application under 
nursery conditions are small, and it is thought that the increase in size and vigor, together with better 
conditions for budding, will amply repay the small cost in material and labor necessary for the treatments. 
It is obvious that the first application should be made before the disease has gained much headway in the 
spring. Three to five subsequent applications may then be given at intervals of three to four weeks, accord¬ 
ing to the season. 
