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Show cen e 76 CLASSIFIEDS FEATURES PAUL HARVEY -- -- THURSDAY, JAN. 1, 1976 -- -- SJPPLEMENT TO THE NEWS EXAMINER, PRESTON CITIZEN CACHE CITIZEN. GRACE CITIZEN WEEKS TV GUIDE AND THE LEADER GARLAND TIMES N mm EXAMI.NG CULTURE from a diseased plant, Dr. Neal Van Alfen, Utah State University Extension plant pathologist, identifies the organism causing the trouble. He is working with ornamentals, fruits, field crops and shade trees t0 helP so,ve disease problems. FOR PARTRIDGES TO PERCH IN Will There Be Enough Unless a new disease appearing in Utah is stopped, there may not be enough pear trees for partridges to perch in on future first days of Christmas. Dr. Neal Van Alfen, the new extension plant pathologist at Utah State University, is quite certain he has identified in Utah the disease called pear decline. This disease has killed thousands of pear trees on the Pacific Coast. DR. VAN ALFEN was born at Ogden, Utah, and grew up in the Central Valley of California where he helped with the harvest of fruit. He said, "I became very interested in plant pathology from seeing the drastic loss caused by fruit tree diseases. There I saw the devastating power of a plant pathogen. "It really distressed me to see farmers have to go and dump ton after ton of peaches that could not be marketed because a brown rot had developed on peaches har vested when rains occurred at the peak of the harvest season. I remember two years when those farmers lost half their crop from brown rot." He added, "I'm glad to be back in Utah. I hope that here I can be of much service in identification of plant disease problems and making recommendations for control procedures." ACTUALLY, DR. Van Alfen, who joined the USU staff in August this year, has a three-wa- y split assignment: extension patholo- one-thir- d research with gist, the Agriculture Experiment Station and teacher with the Biology Department. He admits it's a rather hard split. one-thir- d one-thir- d He said, "I am responsible for diseases of all crops. I am much interested in fruit tree pathology as well as other crops and ornamentals. I hope to be of real service to crop growers, nurserymen and home owners." Dr. Van Allen received his BS and MS degrees from Brigham Young University and his Ph.D. in plant pathology from the University of California at Davis. His responsibility during the past three years before returning to Utah was research on shade tree disease problems with the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. THE NEW extension plant pathologist says he loves working with people, especially when he can help them with solutions to their problems. He will have plenty of opportunity to do just that as he helps combat the great variety of plant diseases that appear in farm crops and plants that beautify both homes and' public grounds throughout Utah. Ray Burtenshaw and Harold Lindsay, USU county extension agents in Cache and Box Elder Counties, say they are real happy to have a specialist on the staff who has had experience with shade tree diseases and can Pear Trees? also help with the iruit tree disease problems. "I've been plagued with shade tree problems I just couldn't find answers to." Lindsay commented last summer. CONCERNING the pear problem. Dr. Van Alfen noted that he and area horticul-luris- t, Fullmer Allred, working in the Provo area, have found evidence of pear decline disease which can be a serious problem. He said, "I believe it has spread fairly extensively throughout that area. We once thought it was caused by a virus. We now believe that a microplasma like organism, similar to the pleuropneumonia type organisms in animals, gets into the Phleom (inner bark) area of the plant that conducts nutrients from roots to the leaves. It causes an incompatibility at the point where the graft union is made and literally starves the tree to death. It is more severe on some rootstocks than others. "Actually, there are two stages, quick decline and gradual decline. In the first, a tree known to be healthy at the beginning of the season will begin to show symptoms in the summer and be dead by the end of the season. This normally is a problem where the pear trees are grafted onto oriental rootstocks. It is evidenced by a brown line forming at the grafting union and very rapid decline of the tree. "THE PEARS on other rootstocks can also be affected by the pear decline organism, though not as severely. The gradual decline is evidenced by a gradual loss of production, reduced shoot growth, a bright crimson red coloration of the leaves earlier than expected in the fall, an upward curling of the leaf blades, often a premature defoliation, a premature leaf fall and smaller size of leaves." Dr. Van Alfen and the extension horticulturists are setting up some trials. They will employ an experimental treatment that has worked successfully in some places. It involves about three years of successive treatments of injecting the infected trees right after harvest with an antibiotic which is effective against the organism caus' ' ing the disease. HOWEVER, BOTH Dr. Van Alfen and Dr. Don W. Davis, USU entomologist, point out that it will do no good to treat the trees unless the insect vector, the pear psylla, that spreads it is controlled. Utah cherry growers who have been plagued for many years with Western X disease killing their trees also may take encouragement. Dr. Van Alfen said, "We believe we can treat Western X disease the same way. Tests seem to show it would be very promising. It's caused by the same type of organism that is also susceptible to antibiotic |