FIREBLIGHT.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVIII, Issue 18600, 30 December 1920, Page 4

FIREBLIGHT.

APPEAR ANCE IN OTAGO,

ORCHARDISTS WARNED

A telegram to the effect that fireblight has made its appearance m Otago caused concern among Canterbury orchardists yesterday. The disease is a, bacterial affection caused by Bacillus nmylovorous. which gains entry to Uio host plant in various ways. Once in the tissues it migrates to the intercellular spaces some distance aboveand below the point of entry. The ooze period is the most serious for the orchardist. _ On the approach of spring, the bacilli in the larger cankered roots become active and begin to multiply with rapidity. As a result largel musses of a sticky substance, which consists of cell-sap and ..bacteria, arc forced through the epidermis to the surface. Insects readily devour this ooze and are liable to carry the organising of the flowers of pear, apple or quince trees. In New Zealand the flower infection stage is the worst of all, as the grower loses not only the present crop but has a badly infected tree left on his hands. _ The blossoms quickly turn brown, wither and die, but remain attached to the spurs on which they arc borne. They become very noticeable as grey, dead patches among the young green growth of the tree. If a branch is . ring-barked, it wilts suddenly, the leaves change colour or shrivel and finally turn dark brown, but they, remnm persistent. Sometimes the whole of the top growth of the U’eo may appear as if scorched. It is from this scorched appearance of the trees that the disease has obtained its name. Remedial measures lies in the cutting out of the cankered areas.

So serious lias the blight become in the Auckland province that a special department has been set up to deal with it. An official report issued recently mid that lire blight was still spreading in the Hamilton district. The late blossoms and the young green tips are the two channels in whicn infection is particularly noticeable. Almost invariably where there is any sign of infection, hawthorns are concerned. Tn going around Waikato departmental officers found fireblight, to p greater* or less degree, In nearly every orchard visited. Prompt action is the orchardist's most effective weapon. In many pin res in the North Island it has been found that infection has been present a week or two prior to the officer’s visit. .Mis first more was to order the immediate destruction of the affected trees. The Agricultural Department- desires that every grower should recognise his own responsibility. in his own interests nprf in the. interests of his neighbours, the blight infected trees stiould bo cut out right away. If that is not done the fireblight will never lie wiped out. ft is advisable and strongly recommended, when anything is cut out ot a tree, to use a disinfectant on the instrument with which the cut is made. Otherwise the instrument used will affect tho Terv first tree out alter the infected tree. The dressing recommended for the tree wounds is ordinary coal tar with enough creosote added, only a small quantity to make the tar workable. Alter thinning down the mixture should be painted on the wound with a, brush. /Atwell known Australian orchardist who was in New ’Zealand recently waited on the Prime Minister and said that only the most drastic measures, taken at, once, would save the carefully nursed and protected apple export industry from total extinction. The disease, otherwise, would become established in the country, and profitable orcharding would he a thing of the nast. Tho visitor’s remedy is that which the officers of the Horticultural Division have been preaching—the total extinction by fire of the stem, twigs, leaves and roots of erorv effected tree.

Fireblight lias not- made its appearance in Canterbury, according to statement? made yesterday by officers of the Agricultural Department.