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U.S. Department of Energy
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Arsenical poisoning of fruit trees

Journal Article · · Colo., Agric. Exp. Stn., Tech. Bull.; (United States)
OSTI ID:7204841

There are a large number of fruit trees in the State which are suffering from an affection of the trunk and root. This trouble begins, in by far the greater number of cases, at the crown of the tree and subsequently involves both trunk and roots. The first marked symptom is an early ripening of the foilage usually followed by death about midsummer of the ensuing year. The crown of the tree is found to be girdled, the bark on portions of the trunk dead and sunken and most of the roots dead, their bark destroyed and the woody tissue discolored, usually a light shade of brown and sometimes exteriorly blackened. Soluble arsenical compounds will effect the destruction of the bark, the staining of the wood, the production of the so-called black heart and the speedy death of the tree. Arsenical sprays have been used in these orchards for a number of years. These arsenical compounds have accumulated in the soil. The insoluble arsenical compounds are being converted into soluble ones in the soil. The alkalies are the agents effeting the solution of the arsenic. By alkalies, is meant, sodic carbonate, sodic sulfate and sodic chloride. The lime salts, viz. the sulfate, gypsum, and the carbonate, do not effectively protect the arsenical compounds from the solvent action of the alkalies. Systemic poisoning may take place, by absorption of the arsenic with the nutritive solutions taken up by the feeding roots but the greater portion of the trouble appears to be from local irritant poisoning. The arsenical poisoning is, in many cases, complicated by lime poisoning. The arsenic in the arsenite of lime is more readily brought into solution than that of the lead arsenate. It is probable that the lime or marl in the soil and subsoil is also an agent acting conjointly with the arsenic in producing some of the trouble.

OSTI ID:
7204841
Journal Information:
Colo., Agric. Exp. Stn., Tech. Bull.; (United States), Journal Name: Colo., Agric. Exp. Stn., Tech. Bull.; (United States) Vol. 131; ISSN CASTA
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English