THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
23 
to buy trees in somewhat the old time manner. If noth¬ 
ing unforeseen occurs in the meantime, we can expect 
a much better spring than last year. 
But now to get right down to brass tacks: There has 
been one other reason which has been the chief reason 
for the depression in the nursery business. It is our 
same old thread-bare friend—“over-production'’ The 
big commercial plantings prior to 1910 and 'l l made loo 
many nurserymen plunge into deep water. As a body, 
we nurserymen have trusted too much to blind provi¬ 
dence and depended too little on our cool, deliberate 
judgment. Too many nurserymen are horn optimists. 
It seems that we will not permit ourselves to look hack 
over the past; we try to forget the big bon fires and re¬ 
member only the palmy days. 
My recent somewhat extensive correspondence on the 
very subject I am discussing now bears out this fact. 
75 per cent, of the nurserymen to whom I wrote, es¬ 
pecially those who were unable to give the matter much 
of their valuable time, wrote that they did not know just 
why, but they somehow felt that after the close of the 
war we should experience a great wave of prosperity in 
the nursery business. We all hope this is true, and I. 
myself, after considering all the matter before me, be¬ 
lieve it is partly true, but only partly so. 
About a year ago, while conferring with the vice- 
president of one of the largest and most conservative 
financial institutions in the country, we discussed this 
very topic. His judgment, at that time, was that bus¬ 
iness would gradually improve and that the country 
would become unusually prosperous. That this wave 
of prosperity would last throughout the war and for pos¬ 
sibly a year or so after the war—while Europe is pass¬ 
ing through her first period of reconstruction. No coun¬ 
try, not even the United States with its great natural re¬ 
sources, said he, can hope to be entirely free from the ill- 
effects following the absolute destruction of such a large 
portion of the wealth of the world. His judgment was 
that after our first burst of prosperity we would pass 
through several years of moderate depression, after 
which we might expect the resumption of normal condi¬ 
tions. Ilis forecast so far as gradual improvements and 
more prosperous times are concerned has been fulfilled. 
I believe his prediction as to increased prosperity in the 
immediate future will also be fulfilled. After the war 
is over I think there will be that short period of pros¬ 
perity and a several years’ slump, after which America 
should emerge stronger than ever, provided, in the mean¬ 
time, we have taken out enough life insurance in the 
way of adequate national defences to protect our im¬ 
mense wealth. We are today the wealthiest nation in 
the world; our national wealth is estimated at one hun¬ 
dred and three billion dollars. England is next, with about 
eighty billion dollars. If we are not careful some husky, 
male fisty veteran of the European war will be envious 
of our money bags and if we are caught with our guards 
down we may live to regret our failure to remember the 
old adage, “a stitch in time saves nine.” But this is 
getting too far from our subject. 
So far these observations are none too pleasing, 
have not meant to be pessimistic but I do think the most 
dangerous thing that now confronts the nursery frater¬ 
nity is undue optimism. What we need right now is 
conservative propagation, coupled with up-to-date meth¬ 
ods ol doing business, undaunted determination to suc¬ 
ceed, and a strong, healthy, conservative confidence in 
the future of our country and the nursery profession. 
If we will hold our plantings within reasonable bounds 
and realize that the boom plantings are a thing of the 
past, possibly never to return again. I believe we will all 
do a profitable business. 1 think we should be ready for 
at least a temporary slump following the close of the war. 
after that slump I think the nation will soon recover, but 
all the prosperity in the world is not going to offset blind, 
unwise, top-heavy propagation of trees in either‘the 
fruit or ornamental line. The man today with a blind 
belief in the prosperity to come, who plunges into the 
propagation of more stock than his selling machinery 
warrants, is the man who is going to make hard times 
for the nursery fraternity—he is a greater enemy to him¬ 
self and more of a menace to his profession than all tin* 
wars and all the destruction in Europe. 
If we grow for the normal demand, husband our re¬ 
sources, be ready for the rainy days, are conservative in 
our propagation, progressive in our sales methods, the 
demand for nursery stock during the war and the de¬ 
mand for nursery stock after the war will hold no un¬ 
usual dangers for the nurserymen. 
HOW TO CONTROL FIRE BLIGHT 
Reports of fruit growers indicate that fire blight in 
both apples and pears is a serious epidemic in the fruit¬ 
growing sections of the middle west. The disease has 
not as yet been destructive in New York Ibis year, be¬ 
cause of the early dry season which prevented the germ 
from oozing from the hold-over cankers. Cold, cloudy 
weather at the time of pear blossoming suppressed the 
activities of the various insects that carry the blight 
germ to the blossoms. The dry weather induced a hard¬ 
ening of the new growth almost as soon as formed, and 
in such hardened tissue the blight germ makes very slow 
progress. The recent heavy rains, however, are likely to 
bring about rapid growth in well tilled orchards and 
there is still danger of much damage from the blight. 
A representative of the New York state college of agri¬ 
culture at Cornell recently visited many orchards in the 
state and reports only a small amount of blight. He 
therefore urges the fruit growers of tin 1 state to make a 
united and persistent effort to eradicate blight from their 
orchards while it is comparatively a simple proposition. 
Method of Conthol 
The orchards should be inspected twice weekly for 
traces of blight. Any blighted twigs should be cut off at 
once, making the cut at least six inches below any signs 
of the diseased tissue. The pruned stub should be dis¬ 
infected with corrosive sublimate solution made by dis¬ 
solving one antiseptic tablet, obtainable at any drug store, 
in a pint of water. The solution should be carried in a 
glass container and the wounds swabbed liberally with 
it. 
The bi-weekly inspections should be started at once 
and continued until the wood becomes hard again. It 
would also be a great advantage to sow the cover crop 
in pear and young apple orchards now. as this crop will 
help to check the growth and at the same time insure 
that the trees go into w inter in good condition. 
From New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell. 
