STATE HORTICULTUR^VL SOCIETY. 213 



porous, you need not commence mulching for many years — you need 

 not, in some cases, commence mulching at all. You see it depends 

 altogether upon the peculiar circumstances of the case. 



Mr. Earle — I would like to ask Mr. Meehan this question : Do you 

 find the grass system to be a remedy for leaf-blight, almost uniformly? 

 Do these pear trees which are so subject to the early loss of their 

 leaves, hold them when in gi'ass ? 



Mr. Meehan — I do not know how that would be. After once 

 having contracted a disease, by bad climate or any thing else, T do 

 not know whetuor ciny amount of grass or good treatment would 

 restore them. But I do know that trees raised in grass from begin- 

 ning to end have the leaf-blight far less than others. All those who 

 are in the habit of raising pear seedlings know that that is so. When 

 they are in open ground, as soon as the weather gets very hot, leaf- 

 blight commences. But if the pears be shaded, by having apples 

 growing between them, they do not get the leaf-blight; therefore, 

 the probability is that they would not have the leaf-blight when 

 shaded so much as when exposed. Last year I put some pear seed- 

 lings under a hot-bed sash, and some in the open ground alongside of 

 them. The latter were completely destroyed by leaf-blight, while 

 those under the hot-bed sash were not one of them destroyed ; so that 

 it shows that keeping down the intense heat of the surface keeps 

 down leaf-blight. 



Mr. Douglas — I would ask if the leaf-blight on the seedling of the 

 pear is what you speak of? 



Mr. Meehan — That is my understanding. Some commence by 

 having a yellow patch in the leaf, and there are some which I am 

 well acquainted with where it commences on the edge of the leaf. 



Mr. Douglas — The leaf-blight on the pear seedling — the leaf gets 

 spotted and falls ofP— the sap of the tree does not seem to be affected 

 by it. Generally it puts out new leaves. This leaf-blight we are 

 speaking of generally blackens the stem. 



Mr. Woodard— I should like to ask a question. In our northern 

 climate the frost is so intense that our orchards suffer damage from 



