THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
42 i 
carried on only with Washington Navel Oranges and Marsh 
pomelos in California. 
Some New Fruits Originated from the Native and Sand 
Cherry and Plum, N. E. Hansen (Bui. 130 S. D. Agr. 
Exp. Sta.), 
This describes a large number of hybrids produced at the 
Station, and notes their behavior. 
Horticultural Information; How to Obtain it, B. S. 
Pickett (Circ. ii, N. H. Agr. Exp. Sta.). 
This contains lists of books and bulletins on fruit culture, 
vegetable gardening, floriculture and greenhouse manage¬ 
ment, and landscape gardening. 
Hmong Experiment Station 
CQorkcrs 
Danger of General Spread of the Gipsy and Brown- 
Tail Moths Through Imported Nursery Stock. 
Farmers’ Bui. 453, C. L. Marlatt. April, 1911. 
That the presence of a single egg mass of the brown-tail or 
gipsy moth which is overlooked in inspection is sufficient to 
estabhsh the pest in the country is one of the statements 
made in this valuable bulletin. These egg masses or nests 
contain from 300 to 400 young caterpillars, and since it has 
been shown that dming July the moths ean fly as great a 
distance as from Boston to New Brunswick, interested per¬ 
sons will need nothing further to convince them that even 
one nest is too many to overlook. The brown tail is much 
more widely distributed than the gipsy moth, having been 
spread over some twenty states during 1909 and 1910 with 
importations of nursery stock from Europe—chiefly from 
northern France. It is evident that in several of the Euro¬ 
pean countries there has been great indifference with regard 
to the inspection of nursery stock prepared for exportation, 
and it is largely through the efforts of officials of the United 
States Department of Agriculture and interested nurserymen, 
that such inspection is now being established. While the 
presence of these pests may not become known for years, 
there is during all that period the danger, we may almost 
say the certainty that they will be spread during each 
season to more or less distant localities. So great is the 
destructive work of these two moths that orchards have 
been completely destroyed, and forests almost denuded, and 
the national government is now appropriating $300,000 
annually to assist in their control in Massachussetts alone. 
The statements contained in the following paragraph from 
the bulletin will undoubtedly come as a surprise to many, 
and will serve to doubly, trebly, strengthen the belief that 
there is need for quarantine legislation covering the introduc¬ 
tion of infected nursery stock. 
“In addition to the great monetary loss, the brown-tail 
moth exercises a very deleterious effect on health. The hairs 
which cover the caterpillars of this moth are strongly nettling, 
and not only are they so from accidental contact with a cater¬ 
pillar which may fall on clothes, face, neck, or hands from an 
infested tree, but also from the myriads of hairs which are 
shed by these caterpillars when they transform to the chry¬ 
salis state. The latter fall and And lodgment on clothing, or 
collect on the face, neck, or hands, and frequently cause very 
disagreeable and extensive nettling, the effects of which may 
last for months. Breathed into the lungs they may cause 
inflammation and become productive of tuberculosis. All of 
the assistants who have been connected with the Government 
work with these pests in the New England States have been 
seriously poisoned. Two of them have had to give up their 
work and go to the Southwest to attempt to recover from 
pulmonary troubles superinduced by the irritating hairs of 
the brown-tail moth.’’ 
NURSERYMEN CO-OPERATE WITH SCIENTISTS IN 
STUDYING PLANT DISEASES 
Pear blight in its twig form, as well as its canker form, has 
been one of the nurserymen’s serious enemies for many years. 
In the Middle West it often takes on epidemic form, and is 
disastrously destructive. It is interesting to note that some 
nurserymen are alive to the necessity of studying with great 
care these diseases. In the spring of 1909, aco-operative 
arrangement was entered into between C. W. Stuart & Co., of 
Newark, N. Y., and the College of Agriculture at Cornell. 
The purpose of this agreement was to study and demonstrate 
the control of blight in one of their nurseries near Orleans, 
New York. To this end, a held laboratory was established 
on the grounds and maintained continually from June 4 to 
September first. One man inspected and removed from the 
one hundred thirty acres devoted to pear, apple, and quince 
all the blighted twigs or blighted trees which appeared during 
that time. This effort resulted in the prevention of a possible 
epidemic, and the following table shows the result of the 
campaign; 
No. of trees from which blighted 
Apples. 
Pears, 
Quince. 
Total. 
shoots only were removed . 
834 
32 
1451 
2317 
No. trees entirely removed. 
83 
7 
256 
346 
These results are described in Bulletin 272 of the Cornell 
Experiment Station, in which it is explained that the heavy 
cuttings made in the quinces were due to the numerous cases 
of blight carried over in old cankers from the previous season. 
The germs spread from these centers and cause infection in 
the new growth. Many of the quince trees removed were 
killed by infections of the previous season. In the case of the 
apples, most of these were first year buds, composed of a 
single succulent shoot, which, when struck by blight, is 
usually killed with great rapidity. It is evident from the 
figures that over 2000 trees were saved by pruning and 
disinfection. It is impossible to say how many trees these 
might have infected had they been allowed to remain. The 
moral of the story is that prevention, when systematically 
carried out, is successful in controlling pear blight. 
COLORED RAFFIA TO DESIGNATE GRADES OF TREES 
Many nurserymen who grow calipered trees are now us¬ 
ing Colored Raffia to designate the grade. The one inch trees 
can be tied with red, the one and one-half inch with green, the 
two inch with blue, etc. Calipering can be done during the 
dull season, all ready for the shipping rush. Not all laborers 
can size up trees, but they can all tell blue from red. 
