THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
68 3 
we photographed south of the track is this row of 24 crown 
gall trees. 
Further, during the spring of 1893, we planted a thousand 
trees consisting mostly of Winesap, Ben Davis and Jona¬ 
than. At least 20 per cent of the Ben Davis and Jonathan 
were crown gall trees. We did not throw any out, but 
planted them all and this is the orchard that you and Will 
Harrison, of York, Neb. and Mr. Kirkpatrick, of Texas, 
walked through while here in February, and that you 
thought was so thrifty, even and nice. This orchard has 
borne fine and has never had more than 506 trees trans¬ 
planted in it. The first 600 trees on the east side of this 
orchard yielded 6,000 bushels of fine apples this past season. 
Sylvan Newhall, of South Water St., Chicago, packed them 
in the orchard and I think he will verify our statement as to 
the strength and bearing quality of the trees, and also the 
quality of the fruit. 
We have never seen an evener, nicer lot of trees in the 
United States and we invite inspection from anybody who 
may have any doubt about this kind of crown gall injuring 
trees. This crown gall fad ought to be looked into as it is 
causing the destruction of thousands of dollars worth of 
first class trees and is causing the commercial orchardists 
to pay a great deal more for his trees than he otherwise 
would have to. 
It seems that the inspectors don’t know the difference 
between the different kinds of crown gall and since there are 
one or two kinds that have been found to be undesirable in 
the orchard they have thrown out everything that they 
found with a knot on the roots as being injurious and 
dangerous. But our experience has been that 99 per cent 
of this crown gall is simply caused by a rough graft or a 
scar of some kind, and is absolutely harmless even to the 
tree that it is on. 
Hoping that we have given you the information desired 
and that we will see you at Denver, we remain, 
Yours very truly, 
Marshall Bros. 
IN MISSOURI 
May 17th, 1910. 
Hon. Peter Youngers, 
Geneva, Neb. 
Dear Sir: 
Inasmuch as I am away from home, and cannot refer to 
letters and datas which I have at home, I cannot give you 
the information as precise as I could if I were at home, but 
will say that (I think it was December of 1901) at the 
Annual Meeting of the State Horticultural Society held at 
Farmington, Mo., I exhibited some two year old apple trees 
which had some of said knots on them, and I asked for 
information as to what best to do with the trees. The said 
trees were from my private nursery, raised for my own use 
and not for sale. I wanted to know what others thought of 
those knots,—as to myself I had my mind made up, as I had 
seen such knots, more or less, ever since I was a boy, on my 
father’s farm. The State Horticultural Report gives an 
account of what happened at the Farmington meeting. 
There was present a young professor (I think Van Schenk or 
some such name) and he took the position that I should 
burn all my apple trees,—and further stated that there 
should be a law compelling me to do it. I informed him 
that I thought the trees were good and healthy, and as they 
were my trees I would risk planting them in my own 
orchard,—and I did so the following spring, and today they 
are growing and are fine trees, just what I said they would 
be. 
If you wish to know more about this please write me at 
my home at Boonville, Mo., and I will look it all up for you. 
Yours very truly, 
Chas. C. Bell. 
Boonville, Mo., May 26th, 1910. 
Dear Sir: 
In further answer to your former letters concerning my 
experience with Root Gall, will say, that I have just returned 
from my orchard where I planted in the spring of 1901, 
those two year apple trees which were affected with Root- 
knot (or what Prof. Hermann Von Schrenkand the others at 
Farmington meeting in December 1900, pronounced Root- 
gall) and I found the trees growing and in a very healthy 
condition, and in every way satisfactory, perfect specimens 
of healthy, well shaped, vigorous growing apple trees. The 
history of these trees is briefly as follows: 
In December 1900, they were two years old and stood in 
my private nursery, raised for my own planting. There 
were several thousand, and while from all appearance they 
were a healthy looking lot of trees, yet most all of them 
were more or less effected with root-knot (or what I years 
ago as a boy, used to know as root warts), and hence did not 
see much harm in it. But as I was going to the annual 
meeting of the State Horticultural Society at Farmington, 
Mo., December 4, 5 and 6th, I took several of the trees with 
me in order to learn what others knew and thought of said 
root-knots, and you will find some of the discussions in the 
43d Annual Report, on page 184 to 186, (but I find that 
some of the main things have been omitted in said report,— 
namely, that I should at once dig up and burn all my 
trees in my nursery, and inasmuch as there was no law to 
make me do it, there should be such a law, etc. This latter 
demand was specially suggested by Prof. Hermann Von 
Schrenk,—and you may refer to his former statement in the 
same report on page 117. 
The Farmington report omits my reply where I tell the 
professor and others that I am going to set out in my own 
orchard all those root-knot trees, and predicted for them 
success, and I did so the following spring, and my healthy 
young orchard is today a living proof that myself and some 
others were right and the professors were wrong. 
Y^ours very truly, 
Chas. C. Bell. 
This is to certify that on the 25th day of February 1910, 
we the undersigned, witnessed the digging of the three 
Wealthy trees in Marshall Brothers orchard two miles east 
of Arlington, Nebraska, and found the trees and roots 
strong and healthy, and also found a small root-knot grow¬ 
ing on the side of the main body root of one of the trees. 
Also found and removed a small dead root from the same 
tree, which evidently had a very large knot on it when 
planted. This tree was photographed in three different 
positions, then removed to storage for safe keeping, to be 
shipped to the American Nurserymen’s Association conven¬ 
tion at Denver, Colorado in June. 
C. C. Marshall, Arlington, Neb. 
George W. Scanlon, Arlington, Neb. 
A. C. Marshall, Arlington, Neb. 
Joe Gobbellson, Arlington, Neb. 
H. W. Marshall, Arlington, Neb. 
Harvey Clark, Arlington, Neb. 
Austin Miller, Arlington, Neb. 
Fred Payne, Arlington, Neb. 
Henry Hall, Arlington, Neb. 
James Hall, Arlington, Neb. 
O. W. Marshall, Kennard, Neb. 
G. L. Welch, Fremont, Neb. 
B. E. Fields, Fremont, Neb. 
W. N. Adair, Fremont, Neb. 
In addition to the above were E. W. Kirkpatrick, of 
McKinney, Tex., and a committee consisting of Peter 
Youngers, chairman, Geneva, Neb.,W. A. Harrison, \ork, 
Neb. and Geo. A. Marshall, Arlington, Neb. 
