THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
133 
t('r (“oiikl l)e i)ut to good use as liog and turkey food, lii 
wet seetions, willows luiglil prove useful from wliieh to 
eut material for furniture or tying bundles. 
A w ay of overeoming the objeetion of slow^ growth of 
some of the nut s})eeies might he the alternate j)lanting of 
(|uiek grow ing speeies w hieh w ould furnish shade in a 
minimum length of time and whieh eould he eut for pulp 
or other purposes l)y the time the nut trees reach ma¬ 
turity. 
A practical objeetion to highway planting of nut trees 
is that unless eared for, such trees are in danger of be¬ 
coming breeding ])laees for diseases and insect ])ests 
w hich w ould spread to nearby orchards. How ever, such 
planting in numbers are too small to he w orth caring for 
is not to be considered. x41ready the country is agreed 
that the maintaining or tin; middle of the road in such a 
condition that it can i’cuhUm' maximum s('rvic(‘ is a paying 
investment. The suggestion here made is only as tin* 
next step in highway investment. It is a proposition to 
make more comfortable and attractive tin; present sys¬ 
tem of roadways, and at the sanu' tiim' to Indp d(‘V('loi) 
new varieties of nut trees for orchai'd planting. Unh'ss 
such new" varieties are soon to become available, a large' 
part of the country will jeresently find itse'lf de])endent 
upon outside source's tor its |)rinci])al substitute' lor meal 
and its main supply of vegetable fats. 
A little thought should lee able tee w eei k eeut a seeunel jeree- 
gram for the planting e>f utility trees on practically e'very 
highw ay in this country. 
Is Crown Gall Injurious to Apple Nursery Stock? 
By S. B. Fracker, Assistant Entomologist, Madison, Wis. 
Under Wisconsin conditions the presence of crown gall 
and hairy root on apple trees is the cause of a greater 
commercial loss to the nurseryman than any other dis¬ 
ease. The toll taken by the reejuired destruction of all 
trees infected with it is very heavy. At the same time 
there is a real doubt in the minds of the nursery pro¬ 
prietors as to the serious or injurious nature of the 
trouble. 
This doubt is increased by the published results of ex¬ 
perimental plantings in New York, by the opinion ex¬ 
pressed in a U. S. Department of Agricultural bulletin 
that the effects of crown gall have been greatly exagger¬ 
ated, and by the fairly well advertised presence in a 
neighboring state of a flourishing orchard planted entirely 
w"ith trees bearing large galls. 
The wu’iter, therefore, during the last autumn packing 
house inspection seized the opportunity of making some 
observations in regard to the relative size of infected and 
non-infected nursery trees. In all cases the grading into 
sizes w"as done by the nurseryman himself and the deter¬ 
mination of the presence of crowm gall made by the 
author. All indications of an infection w ere included, al¬ 
though a small gall or one on a lateral root does not cause 
the tree to he condemned under our present regulations. 
Observations were made in four nurseries, two of 
w hich use three grades in addition to culls and twn) admit 
ojdy two grades. In all cases the low^est size above the 
culls is sold for a very low" price—below"^ cost of produc¬ 
tion—while all the profit must he made on trees of the 
first or first and second grades as the case may he. Con¬ 
sequently, in the following figures the culls and low"est 
grade trees are added together. 
In the two nurseries using three grades, a total of 596 
trees (chosen at random, “nursery run”) were classified 
as to infection and size. Three varieties were used— 
Duchess, Fameuse, and Transcendent crab—w ilh results 
as follows; 
Per Cent. 
Number Number Threes & Ones & 
Ones Twos Culls Twos Total 
No. % No. % No. % 
Clean .229 65.1 49 13.9 74 21.0 79.0 352 
Infected. 92 37.7 77 31.6 75 30.7 69.3 244 
Totals.321 126 149 596 
Superiority of 
non-infected 
trees. 27.4% 9.7% 
This table indicates that out of 1,000 trees not infected 
with crown gall the nursery might expect 651 trei's of 
the first grade and 139 of the second, a total of 790 trees 
which would pay the co.st of production. In 1.000 in¬ 
fected trees, however, only 377 would he first grade, 316 
second, a total of only 693 trees which would jiay for 
raising. If w e assume that the best apjile trees are worth 
ten cents apiece wholesale and that tin' “seconds” an' 
worth three-fourths as much as the “firsts” tin' valiu' of 
1,000 non-infected trees would he -'f65.10-f-(%X'1'13.90) 
=''f?75.52. One thousand infected trees, if allowed to he 
sold, w"G-dd he worth if37.70+(%X-f31.60)=.f61.i0, a 
reduction of 18.7 per cent, in value. 
In one of the nurseries sc'lling otdy one grad(' of tr('('s 
at a profit the figures, maiidy for Duchess, are as follows: 
Seconds and Per Cent. 
No. Ones Culls Totals No. Ones 
Clean . 147 58 205 71.7 
Infected . 125 86 211 59.2 
In this case infection in the il6 trees examined a|)|)ar- 
cntly reduced the profilahle trees from 717 jx'r thousand 
to 592 per thousand, a reduction of 17.i per c('nl. in value. 
The fourth nursery usually has so lew infcct('d trees 
that the method employed in the others was scarcely 
availahh' her('. In om' varii'ty of their own production, 
however, which they had been careless in grafting. Ix'- 
Uveen 50 and 60 per cent, of the “seconds” proved to he 
