210 Report oF THE BoTANIST OF THE 
at first small and more or less circular, but later coalesce into 
large patches of various shapes, the bark is dead and dry and 
clings tightly to the wood. By the shrinkage of the bark in dry- 
ing the affected areas become slightly depressed and bounded by a 
erack which separates themsharply from the adjacent healthy bark. 
This gives the affected trunks and branches a rough, cracked, un- 
healthy appearance. The trees are seldom killed outright, but 
their growth is checked, often to such an extent as to hope- 
lessly stunt them. 
“ Body blight” has generally been considered to be a form of 
the fire blight caused by the microorganism Bacillus amylovorus ; 
but according to Paddock*’ it may be caused by the apple canker 
and black rot fungus, Sphaeropsis malorum Pk. It is not our 
purpose to discuss’ here the nature of the disease, but to report 
its common occurrence in the Hudson Valley. In all of the 
counties within the district excepting Rockland, Putnam and 
Westchester it was found in great abundance. In a severely at- 
tacked orchard in Greene County, portions of several trees ap- 
peared to have been killed by it. The branches were thickly 
covered with the pyenidia of Sphaeropsis malorum. A few trees 
after struggling along in a half dead condition for several years 
finally died, apparently from Sphaeropsis. 
WINTER INJURY ( ?) 
In each of several orchards in the vicinity of Athens, Greene 
County, a few pear trees died mysteriously. They seemed to 
have died from some cause which killed the bark just below the 
surface of the soil. The parts above ground appeared normal. 
To the unaided eye no fungus was present on the roots or on the 
dead bark of the subterranean portions of the trunk. There were 
no signs of insects. In all cases the dead trees stood in a heavy 
clay soil and were scattered irregularly through the orchard among 
healthy trees. 

31 Paddock, Wendell. The New York Apple-Tree Canker. Bul. 163 of this 
station, p. 203, 
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