DANGER FROM FIREBLIGHT

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25088, 21 January 1947, Page 6

DANGER FROM FIREBLIGHT

NEED FOR IMMEDIATE ACTION ORCHARD INSTRUCTOR’S - WARNING A warning to fruitgrowers and gaydeners of the need for vigilance in the detection of fireblight on certain lunas of fruit trees and ornamental shrubs was issued yesterday by Mr A. RGrainger, orchard instructor for the Department of Agriculture. Once detected, careful attention to the approved method of dealing with the disease should be observed, Mr Grainger said. Fireblight attacked apple, pear, quince, medlar, hawthorn, and others of the crataegus family, and species of cotoneaster, pyracantha, and cydonia japonica. It was a bacterial disease, and the only practical method of control was by the cutting out of infected parts well below the visible point of infection. If this was not done thoroughly, a hold-over canker might form, and that become a source from which new infections might arise next spring. While officers of the department had inspected trees in orchards and gardens in the vicinity of the commercial fruitgrowing areas, it would be a considerable time before they could cover the whole district, and owners should not wait for them to call. They should cut out the parts of trees infected by fireblight as soon as they appeared. That action was required under the provisions of the Orchard and Garden Diseases Act, but it was also a matter of the owners protecting their own property from further damage. Any dead part of a tree should be removed irrespective of the cause of the trouble. The free advisory service of the Horticulture Division of the Department of Agriculture was available to those in