APPLE BLIGHT.

Dunstan Times, Issue 591, 15 August 1873, Page 3

APPLE BLIGHT.

—o— The following remarks on the above subject, by Mr. Sontag, of Dunedin, has been kindly placed at our disposal for publication : “To strike at the root of the apple blight I have commenced with the blightproof Majetin apple to increase and graft upon, that hereafter our hearts may once more gladden to see healthy apple plantations. Yet, on dry perished soils, the rod spider or blight, the white mildew, and, if too wet, the canker iu the roots, may afflict the grower. These 'are our present evils. However, the aphys lanigera, or American blight, is the most rampant. With regard to the .blight of which you send a sample, 1 was not aware that it would harbor in New Zealand. I think around Dudodin, at least in my place, it will not succeed ; it is too wet Jaud chilly. I have seen it on pear trees coming from Australia in a few instances only ; and as such were all small, it was easy to rub them clean with a woollen rag steeped in sott-soap, mixed with sulpher, kerosene, and water ; in the event of soft-soap not being obtainable, then common soap, boiled up into a very strong thick soap-sud. The sulpher has boon mixed up into a doughdry applied or thrown upon water, it floats, and is very difficult to unite. My trial with the trees to clean them would be this compound, applied trees have been proverly pruned, and the rubbing or brushing of each branch must be done in such a manner as to remove the scales. Liquors or spirits kill insect life at once ; kerosene, being oily, is more penetrating. The compound or soap-suds I use pretty warm, and always keep some in a pot on the fire to add when necessary, as cold soap subs will not unite with these greasy blights. In winter, when fruit trees are at rest, their roots and hark will endure the application of far stronger ingredients, without hurt or harm, than at any other seas on cf the year.