Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 3.djvu/166

 suffering from some severe injury. Careful examination disclosed the fact that the inner bark, next to the wood, was discolored and as the season advanced it was observed to turn black and the trees to wither and gradually die. The greatest damage was found to be in the bearing orchards while the nursery trees and young orchards which had not yet come into bearing were, as a rule, nearly exempt from injury. Bearing cherry trees were seriously injured and thousands of them died as the season advanced. A very few varieties of apples seemed to have escaped with slight injury but many which were heretofore regarded as hardy were as badly damaged as the tender kinds. All through the central and southeastern counties the destruction was very great and hundreds of thousands of bearing orchard trees perished as the season advanced. It was a discouraging sight to the fruit growers who saw widespread ruin of the orchards that had cost them long years of patient waiting and care. Of the bearing orchards of more than forty counties in the central, eastern and southeastern portions of the State, very few escaped great and fatal injury. Many of the trees lingered for several years producing fruit of an inferior quality but their vitality was so seriously blighted that it was never recovered. The escape of the younger orchards and the trees in the nurseries seemed to puzzle the most experienced fruit growers as to the cause of the general destruction of the older trees. There was wide differences of opinion on the subject and it is still an unsettled problem.

The Twentieth General Assembly met at Des Moines on the 14th of January, 1884, and William P. Wolfe of Cedar County was elected Speaker. Lieutenant-Governor Manning presided over the Senate; Governor Sherman and Lieutenant-Governor Manning were inaugurated for a second term on the 17th of January in the new State House which was so far completed as to accommodate this General Assembly. As the members prepared