THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
317 
ported that a new chiysantheinurn ’ was named 
after a prominent eitizen. 
One would think that every eliild with a grammar 
school education would know that a chrysanthemum is 
not a bulhous plant, and this from a reporter and passed 
by an editor. 
Of course there are many ])eople who have a broad 
knowledge of plants, not necessarily a technical one, hut 
one wdiich makes it easy for the nurseryman to reach 
them through the medium of the printed page. But what 
about the others? Does the average nursery catalogue 
interest them, can they understand it or is it gotten up 
above their understanding? 
Are the articles on horticulture with a view of inter¬ 
esting the public and developing a market for plants ac¬ 
complishing their purpose? 
True, any person who is interested and will study them 
they wall reach, hut it is the others who should be 
reached. 
In selecting our ow-n reading we are all apt to skip 
matter on a subject in which we are not interested. If 
a person has only a passing interest in machinery or 
plants they are not likely to read about them, unless it is 
presented to them in an unusual form. 
As John Watson pointed out the proper time to sell 
roses was when roses were in bloom. When people could 
see them. Nearly everyone knows roses and naturally 
there is less sales resistance than many other plants that 
ought to be planted just as freely. 
The nursery trade is primarily for merchandising, sell¬ 
ing plants. Creating buyers is the big problem. 
Pictures, displays, movies, lectures, talks, and last but 
not least good salesmanship suggest themselves as better 
than the printed page. 
The whole subject is a deep one and deserving of much 
thought. It is difficult to popularize anything under a 
latin name. Unfortunately most of our merchandise has 
to carry them. Not only the names but a certain amount 
of technical knowledge is necessary for the purchasers 
to have before the potential value of the goods is turned 
into actual value. 
To summarize, the nursery trade wants to popularize 
and sell its ])roducts. It wants to interest those people 
in them who do not know one plant from another. To 
them a plant name conveys no meaning. Some means 
must be found to demonstrate plants to the public which 
does not imply a course of study. Buying plants must 
he made easy and their desirability demonstrated. The 
schools are the greatest hope of the printed page and the 
future, hut a more spectacular, easier and quicker acting 
method should he devised to encourage the buyers now. 
CROWN GALL 
The short survey of the Crown Gall disease by Tlieo- 
dore Parker, Hon. Sec. of the Technical Committee of the 
Chamber of Horticulture of Great Britain, published in 
the Horticultural Trade Journal, will he of interest at this 
time. The American Association ol Nurserymen is co¬ 
operating with the American Phytopathological Society 
in a research program, which is expected to add much 
knowledge to what is already known about this disease. 
The disease is now found in most parts of the British Isles, 
nurseries having distributed affected stocks not only all over 
England but to many other parts of the world. 
Its existence in France, Holland, America and South Africa 
has been definitely established. 
The disease caused a dwarfing of growth as well as direct 
injury to roots and branches, some plants being more seriously 
affected in this way than others. 
The disease has been known for very many years, but its true 
nature has only in recent years been properly understood. 
It has been shown by E. F. Smith (U. S. A.) that the disease 
is infectious and the causal organism has been named Bacterium 
tumefaciens. The characteristic galls have been produced under 
artificial conditions by inoculating into the tissues of healthy 
plants cultures of this organism. 
These bacteria are exceedingly difficult to locate in the tissues 
of the galls which probably explains the fact that the cause and 
nature of the disease has only been recently understood. 
The typical galls may vary in size from that of a Pea to 8 to 
10 inches in diameter. 
The position of these also varies considerably, generally they 
are to be found at the crown or collar of the attacked plant, and 
in the case of Raspberries and certain other plants on the roots, 
stems or branches. 
Where root grafting is carried out galls are frequently found 
at the junction of the scion and stock. 
Grubb reports, that in the case of Apples raised from layers 
or stools at East Mailing, by far the largest proportion of galls 
occur on the base of the stem at the point where it was separated 
from the parent stool or layer. 
Infections higher up the stem are sometimes found, and others 
on lateral roots, but galls at the ground level or crown of the 
stock usually take the form of rough warty swellings of soft 
tissues which vary in development from a slight irregularity of 
the “callus” to large more or less spherical galls up to three or 
four inches in diameter. 
The other form of crown galls, known as “Hairy root,” men¬ 
tioned later on, has not been observed with any degree of cer¬ 
tainty in this country. 
It has been shown that the organisms gain entrance to the 
plants through wounds, and in all probability they cannot enter 
an uninjured surface. It is well known that seedlings are less 
often attacked, whilst with cuttings and root grafts the period 
during which the plants are liable to attack is just prior to and 
during the formation of the “callus.” 
Once the bacteria have entered the tissues they multiply, but 
instead of causing disintegration of the cells they cause them to 
divide and become enlarged, in a similar manner to wart disease 
on Potato tubers, causing ultimately the formation of the char¬ 
acteristic gall. 
Crown Gall is a somewhat peculiar disease, in that in certain 
plants the aftected areas appear to form strands in the healthy 
tissues along which the bacteria travel and from which other 
galls arise, sometimes at a considerable distance from the orig¬ 
inal gall. 
This fact explains why it is that new galls arise in other spots 
if the primary gall is removed. 
The amount of damage by Crown Gall varies greatly in differ¬ 
ent crops. 
In some cases it is almost negligible. Stone fruit appear to 
suffer more than Apples or Pears. 
In Sweden soft fruits such as Raspberries have been so injured 
as to bear practically no crop, and similar cases have been re¬ 
ported in England. 
It is considered a serious disease on Vine in Prance and Italy. 
Recent work has shown that its effects on Apples are compar¬ 
atively slight and perhaps not so serious as was at one time 
thought. 
Tlie amount of injury varies in different varieties, not only as 
regards stock but with the variety grafted on to it. 
In some cases the stocks appear to be able to throw off the 
disease entirely. 
It has been observed here, that during the first few years af¬ 
ter planting, galled trees often grow almost, if not quite, as well 
as gall-free trees. 
The amount of injury which appears depends largely on the 
position of the gall on the tree. 
Galls at the crown being more serious than those on lateral 
roots. 
Galls having a narrow neck are stated to be less harmful than 
those which are attached by a broad base. 
Crown Gall may be considered dangerous as a disease because, 
in addition to any direct injury that may be caused by its para¬ 
site, it may afford means of entrance to various parasitic fungi. 
The distribution of diseased stock among new and clean orchards 
