THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
657 
ROOT GALL OF THE APPLE 
BY E. A. SMITH, 
Vice-President of The Jewell Nursery Co., Lake City, Minn., June 1910 
PRELUDE 
History frequently destroys theories. Many of those 
which have been accepted and practiced are found worth¬ 
less, while many of those which have been rejected have 
finally been accepted as the most practical and efficient. 
There are many chief corner stones now lying idle in vacant 
lots. In time, they will become the key stones of an arch, 
upon which will rest the progressive ideas of the future. 
Nations have come and gone, animal and vegetable life 
is constantly changing, and with these changes have come 
new diseases, and new treatments of old diseases. 
Valuable information has been gained and important 
discoveries made, relating to the habits and diseases of plant 
life, thru the United States Experimental Stations and other 
apples, and is injurious, and great care should be taken in 
propagating, to not communicate the disease with knife or 
by contact with roots which are infected.” 
Prof. Hedgecock, now of the U. S. Experimental Depart¬ 
ment, Washington, states in his excellent paper given before 
the American Association of Nurserymen, that in 1905 in 
making piece grafts, he finds the best material for wrapping, 
to be the cheapest kind of calico, with which, only fourteen 
and nine-twelfths per cent, in his experiment showed 
Crown Gall. Waxed paper showed twenty-nine and four- 
tenths per cent, waxed thread showed thirty-six and three- 
tenths per cent. Crown Gall. He further says, experiments 
show that grafts planted in poorly drained, heavy, stiff soil, 
produce more Crown Gall than in loose and dry soil, and 
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agencies. If their work is largely theoretical, it should be 
supplemented by the more practical work of others. 
EXPERIMENTS OF OTHERS 
Before approaching the practical side of this subject 
which has come under our direct observation, let us briefly 
quote from those who have made a study of Root or Crown 
Gall from a scientific, theoretical and to some extent, prac¬ 
tical standpoint. 
Prof. J. L. Phillips of the Experiment Station of 
Virginia, has paid considerable attention to Crown and Root 
Gall. His observation leads him to believe that the so- 
called disease can be transmitted by scions, and that scions 
should only be taken from healthy trees. He finds that 
some varieties are more susceptible to gall than others. 
Prof. J. B. S. Norton, of the Maryland Experimental 
Station says: “It may be pretty certainly stated that the 
hard wood Gall near the stem and root of apple stock is not 
contagious, but that the soft Gall on peach, plum and rasp¬ 
berry is distinct from the hard wood Gall mentioned on 
while soft Crown Gall may be slightly contagious, the hard 
Crown Gall has not been found so in his experiments. His 
conclusions, also at the end of two years’ experimenting, 
indicate that hard Root Gall is not contagious. In an 
experiment with three hundred trees at the end of one year, 
the so-called diseased trees show no difference in appearance 
from the healthy trees, also experiments by the Depart¬ 
ment, show that from considerable data collected, the Gall 
does not greatly shorten the life of the young tree. He men¬ 
tions an incident where fifty Root Gall trees were planted 
near Brussels, Ill., and at the end of eight years the orchard 
contained forty healthy, vigorous trees, also that the further 
north one goes, the less liability there is of finding what is 
called the soft Gall. 
PARTIAL CAUSE OF ROOT GALL 
Our observation in practical work, leads us to conclude 
that Root Gall is more prevalent in wet seasons than it is in 
dry seasons. Cut or injure the root of any tree or plant and 
