3i6 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
is the trouble known as “crown gall” or “root knot” and 
“hairy root.” These diseases have been the subject of 
extensive investigation by many plant pathologists, parti¬ 
cularly by the Department of Agriculture at Washington, 
D. C. No doubt many of you are familiar with the excel¬ 
lent bulletin VTitten by Professor Hedgecock and published 
as bulletin i86 of the Bureau of Plant Industry, dealing with 
the field study of crown gall and hairy root of the apple tree. 
1 do not wish to discuss this bulletin except to call attention 
to certain of the conclusions made as a result of the very 
careful investigation work which Mr. Hedgecock carried 
out. After showing by careful experiments that apple trees 
affected with the crown gall or hairy root, when planted in 
the orchard, frequently, and in fact, in the majority of cases 
develop into apparently healthy normal trees, he makes 
the statement; “If the growing of nursery stock were 
confined to apple trees, inspection for crown gall would hardly 
be found necessary. Since this disease attacks and kills 
grape vines, raspberries, and probably peach trees, and since 
it may be communicated to them from apple trees, it is 
clearly the duty of a nmsery inspector to insist that apple 
trees diseased with crown gall should not be sold. It is best 
to include in the same catagory apple trees diseased with 
hairy root.” I mention this because I understand that 
quite a number of nurserymen in various sections of the 
country have started experiments with the idea of determin¬ 
ing whether apple and other fruit trees diseased with crown 
gall and hairy root will later compare favorably with healthy 
trees in the orchard. This is excellent work and there is no 
doubt that the- more experimentation of this kind we can 
have the sooner will we be upon the right track in regard 
to the crown gall situation. Indeed the department which 
I represent is co-operating with the Oregon Nursery Company 
in carrying out an extensive experiment of this sort in which 
nearly 4000 trees are used. 
I think it would be well, however, to consider carefully 
just what is the purpose of these experiments. Are we 
endeavoring by such experiments to convince scientists 
and fruit inspectors that crown gall and hairy root of the 
apple are of no importance as orchard diseases? It is 
probable that the results of many of these experiments will 
show that there is no difference after ten years between the 
trees which were diseased and those which were healthy. 
Even if this is the result how are we to alter the facts, as 
stated in the above quotation, referring to- the intercom¬ 
municability of this disease to other fruit crops ? The work of 
Dr. Erwin F. Smith published in full in bulletin 213 of the 
Bureau of Plant Industry establishes beyond a doubt the 
bacterial nature of this disease and the fact that it is com¬ 
municable from one fruit crop to another. There are many 
records from reliable authorities showing the danger of 
planting certain fruits on the same ground where other fruits 
have been taken up because of the serious infection of crown 
gall. It would seem to me that we must take these facts 
into consideration when planning experiments. Would 
it not be better to spend our time and energy in more exten¬ 
sive field of study of the interrelation of this disease to its 
various hosts, and especially be devising methods by which 
the percentage of infection in nursery stock may be reduced ? 
It does not seem improbable that certain inexpensive 
changes might be introduced into the nursery practice 
which would reduce materially the percentage of trees 
affected with crown gall. 
Perhaps the most important field of work for the nursery¬ 
men, however, would be the development of a sentiment in 
favor of more uniform inspection laws. With reference to 
crown gall I see no reason why there should not be a uniform 
national law in this respect, the inspection in one state should 
also be accepted in another state. Such a condition would 
be welcomed by the orchardists as well as by the nursery¬ 
men. If this were done, however, it would be highly im¬ 
portant to have the inspection service improved by requiring 
that inspectors have some technical knowledge of the various 
fungous diseases and insect pests which affect mrrsery stock 
and fruit trees in general. All inspectors should be required 
to take an examination as to their fitness, or better should 
be required to pursue a special course of training preparatory 
for the work. Incidentally the wages should be increased 
in order to make it worth while for interested persons to 
take the necessary training. 
My observation has been that more trouble and mis¬ 
understanding come about by unscientific inspection than 
by too rigid inspection. On present knowledge all up-to- 
date nurserymen will agree with me that trees affected with 
crown gall and hairy root should not be planted by the 
grower and should be thrown out by the inspector. Only 
diseased trees, however, should be discarded. It is, there¬ 
fore, highly important that every inspector know crown gall 
thoroughly and scientifically. I do not believe, however, 
that trees, especially in the case of apples, should be dis¬ 
carded on mere suspicion. 
In connection with the general nurserymen’s problems 
the question arises as to just what is the best method of 
working out these problems. On account of the fact that 
the time of oirr experiment station workers is entirely taken 
up with the producers problems, it is difficult for them to 
arrange to make special investigations of the nurserymen’s 
problems. In fact it is a question, on account of the nature 
of the industry, whether experiment stations would be 
justified in using any large portion of state funds to investi¬ 
gate these problems. It would seem, therefore, that it 
would be most desirable for the nurserymen to take up the 
matter of investigating these problems themselves. This 
work, however, should, if possible, be carried on in co¬ 
operation with Agricultural Colleges and Experiment 
Stations. Certain experiments, especially any whose pur¬ 
pose is to influence the rigidity of inspection which are 
carried out independently by the nurserymen would have 
little weight with the people whom they wish to convince. 
One of the best methods of working out the problems of a 
special industry such as the nurserymen’s is that adopted 
by the New York (Cornell) Experiment Station. The Plant 
Pathology department of that Institution has arranged for 
the establishment of what they term “Investigatorships,” 
or “Industrial Fellowships.” Several of these Investigator- 
ships have already been established, and some of them have 
been in successful operation several years. One of these has 
been in co-operation with various nmsery companies for the 
