FIRE BLIGHT.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 647, 5 July 1921, Page 3

FIRE BLIGHT.

TRA«ED‘-.'TQ v r»iETLES .IN APEKICA*

During the proceedings at the New Zealand Fruitgrowers’ Conference Professor 1! Foster, of America, spoke mterestirtgly -oh the subject of -’Fire Blight.” Iri California, ‘be "said, it was' considered ■ a public nuisances, and the questijpnywas Simply one of eradication; if was compulsory to destroy any plants which the disease. In California the blight hag, been traced to, beetles, whiqh had spept the night on the upper branches of the trees and then had gone down into the ground and infected the upper" roots. *" ■"

In reply to a question the professor said he considered there was absolutely no chance of eradicating the blight in New Zealand, and he advocated the forfeiting of portion bf any infected tree in the effort to combat the disease. How the fire blight got into New Zealand he was unable to say,, but it was probably due to the action of some person in bringing in an infected tree and being unaware of the true nature of the disease.

Mr. A. H. Cockayne, Government Biologist, said that the reall curse of fire blight was not known until 1880, but it had been recognised as a serious disease of pip fruit trees almost a century before that date.