160 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



At Princeton we saw the Vicar of Winkfleld bearing well in one of the village lots. 

 At another place we found considerable blight, associated however with perfect health 

 in other trees. The Hon. John H. Bryant showed us a lot of pear trees with which 

 great pains had been taken. They were surrounded on three sides by a high close 

 board fence. They were standards, beaded low and planted 18x18 feet. They are now 

 12 years of age. Of the 250 trees originally planted, about 15 or 20 per cent, are dead. 

 The varieties comprise Bloodgood, Flemish Beauty, Lawrence, Belle Lucrative, Bart- 

 lett, White Doyenne, Seckel, Rosticzer, Dearbonis Seedling, Steven's Genesee, Beurre 

 Bosc, Beurre Diel, Oswego, Beurre and Madelaine. Of these the Bartlett is the best, 

 "three to one" in productiveness thus far. Belle Lucrative comes nest, and Seckel 

 next. Bloodgood has not yet borne fruit. The pears last year, and to some small 

 extent this, had the russet bands and spots seen by your committee last year about 

 Alton. In Mr. Bryant's yard is a tree of the Burlinghame pear (of Kenrick) 20 years 

 old, thrifty, and bearing good crops. At Arthur Bryant's, we saw some good pear trees 

 of considerable age, but omitted to take notes of them. 



At Centralia, we saw some fine young pear trees ori the grounds of Mr. Pullen, and 

 some good dwarfs on the place of Valentine Betz, but the general condition of the trees 

 in this vicinity was not good. The excessive drought of 1867, and the very late and v e, 

 spring of 1868, had prevented timely cultivation, and injured the trees. At this point 

 also, we saw the russet bands on some of the fruit that had escaped the spring frost. Mr. 

 John Betz, who has about 50 varieties, and 1500 to 2000 trees, says he would plant now 

 only the Bartlett. 



At Cobden, where I spent only a few hours, we looked in on the large pear orchard of 

 Parker Earle & Co. Some trees had made an aggregate growth of 18 feet, although 

 planted this season. The trees three years planted, were very handsome and thrifty. 

 Here and there a tree was dying and upon being pulled or dug up, were found to have 

 the roots dead or dying, and coated with a white or grayish fungus growth, apparently 

 the result, but possibly the cause, of decay. This orchard, like most of those of lower 

 Egypt* was planted on freshly cleared land immediately after clearing. I am inclined to 

 think that for some species of fruit trees, this immediate succession is not congenial, and 

 may possibly be a condition of disease and death. 



At Villa Ridge, we saw the very fine pear trees of Judge Brown, whose experience 

 with varieties has been given in our last report. We found some blight, and a very pe- 

 culiar fungus on the limbs of one or two of the trees. A spider web-like myceliun runs 

 up the branches, making mushroom-like excrescences around the buds and in the forks 

 of the smaller limbs. This web-like process, at first white, grows brown as it becomes 

 older, and forms white, oyster-shaped blotches along the web, which I suppose may con- 

 tain the spores of the plant. This fungus appears to grow with great rapidity and to 

 confine itself entirely to the exterior part of the tree, doing no apparent injury beyond 

 destroying the leaves and making them drop. Pear trees in this remarkable soil grow 

 with great vigor. A Flemish Beauty tree at Dr. Crane's, 11 years planted, is already 20 

 to 25 feet high. 



My observation of varieties of the pear at Alton, has been limited owing to the fail- 

 ure of fruit. On my own place, Bartlett, Belle Lucrative, Seckel, Onondaga, and Duch- 

 esse d'Angouleme were least injured by frost. I have not observed much blight, but I 

 think there was a good deal of latent tendency that way, which from lack of favorable 

 conditions did not develope. I think I checked it one case upon the Easter Beurre by 



