STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. I49 



I presume it is understood that the kind of bh;j;^ht referred to in these 

 remarks is ihc/rozen sap bligJit^ and not the kind wholly pertaining to 

 the small branches, said to be caused by the Scolytus pyri insect, of 

 whose work I have little knowledge. But our neighbors in Mis- 

 souri are reported as sulfering badly from this last variety, which is there 

 manifested in a very alarming maimer, according to the eminent horti- 

 cultural editor of an intluential New York newspaper. A gentleman 

 writes from that unfortunate country, describing a kind of blight, which 

 not only kills this year's and last year's wood, but often " involves the 

 whole tree," and which " severe pruning done in May and the first of 

 June" not only failed to check, but fatally aggravated. This would look 

 like the work of our old and familiar enemy, did not the authority above 

 acknowledged tell us it was caused by a small insect which "girdles the 

 branches." And to another unlucky gentleman whose apple trees have 

 been "cultivated each year since planted, and have grown rapidly," but 

 which are now described as having " tlie bark cracked through from six 

 inches to a foot from the ground," and "loosened, some part of the way 

 round, and some all round, and dying," he says that "this appears from 

 the description to be the work of insect blight;" and he relieves the afflicted 

 correspondent, and all of us, with this remedy: "Cut off the diseased 

 part," (the entire trees were dying, you remember,) "and insert some 

 cions in the large branches next spring!" Any western gentleman 

 suffering from horticultural disease will be likely to get the proper 

 remedy by applying to any of the New York newspapers. 



I am not prepared to recommend everybody to root-prune their trees, 

 or to seed their orchards to grass, but each of these courses will doubtless 

 be valuable in many localities; and my impression is that either will 

 essentially subserve the same end, viz : a moderate annual growth, an 

 early maturity of wood, a better holding of the leaves, and a much finer 

 coloring of the fruit, all of which show a healthier balance of the forces 

 of the tree. Root-pruning demands very thorough cultivation, which 

 renders it somewhat impracticable on our washing hill-sides, but on 

 ground not subject to wash, it may, in many cases, be better than grass- 

 ing, while a clean sod will be the most cheaply managed, and will save 

 our hill soils from waste. Either plan commends itself to my judgment 

 as far safer for western growers than the high culture, which so well 

 befits the lean granite soils of New England. 



In my observation of pear-growing, no fact has impressed me more 

 forcibly than the wide diflerence in the constitutional vigor of varieties. 

 Our standard pomological books, and the bulky catalogues of our great 

 nurseries, coolly count up the varying virtues of many hundred kinds, 

 and tempt us to buy and plant them ; and, indeed, there are a couple of 

 hundred sorts, each one of which possesses some individual excellence, 

 some charm for the eye or the palate, without which a fascinated pear 

 amateur will feel hungry, impoverished, and continually defrauded of 

 his birthright. So let us bravely plant all that are large and showy, all 

 that are graceful in form, all that are beautiful in color, and all the 

 varieties of marked and delicious flavor, that each season of the year 



