1886.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA, 325 



Thomas Meelian.^ T. T. Lyons,^ of Michigan, states as the 

 opinion of many cultivators in that State, that the pear-tree can- 

 not be grown with financial success on account of the blight. 

 Illinois has always been much subject to the disease, and Prof J. 

 B. Turner,^ in 1868, gave expression to the genei'al feeling of his 

 region by describing it as " that deadly Upas of the pear-tree 

 known par excellence as the pear-blight." In 1882 Dr. J. L. 

 Hallum,^ speaking for southern Illinois, says, " pears have failed, 

 utterly failed, so that none are now cultivated for market, the 

 blight has destroyed the trees branch and root," and S. G. 

 Minkler,^ in the northern part of the State, observes that it is a 

 very uncommon thing to see pear-trees without dead branches or 

 other signs of the ravages of blight. Wm. A. Nourse,^ of the 

 same State, is led to " doubt if one-tenth of the pear-trees tliat 

 are set, live ten years," on account of this one destructive agent. 

 Geo. M. Dewey ,^ of Missouri, says that " with good cultivation 

 and rich soil the pear generally dies of blight before the eighth 

 year." In Minnesota the severe climate has not permitted the 

 cultivation of pears, and almost the only apples grown for many 

 years were the hardy crab-apples. The latter have been rapidly 

 improved, and together with the hardier varieties of the common 

 apple would now furnish this part of the country with an abundant 

 supply of fruit, were it not for this same disease, which elsewhere 

 most conspicuously preys upon the pear-tree. E. H. S. Dartt ^ 

 held the opinion in 1874 that the severity of winter was not so 

 much to be dreaded as the ravages of blight. He had at that 

 time one or two thousand trees affected. Dr. P. A. Jewell,^ up to 

 1876, had lost ten thousand Tetofsky apple-trees by it. P. G. 

 Gould '" says that " only for this scourge every family living on a 

 farm in Minnesota could have a supply of apples." 



1 Rep. Penn. Fruit-Grower's Soc. for 1877, p. 77. 



2 Rep. Pomol. Soc. of Mich., for 1878, p. 368. 

 ' Trans. 111. Horfc. Society for 1868, p. 43. 



* Same for 1882, p. 118. 



* Same for 1880, p. 30. 



Trans. 111. Hort. Soc. for 1880, p. 63. 

 ' Proc. Mo. Hort. Soc. for 1870, p. 18. 

 8 Trans. Minn. Hort. Soc. for 1874, p. 32. 

 'Samefor 1876, p. 73. 

 '" Same for 1884, p. 127. 



