THE PEAR-BLIGHT. 17 



named contain any plant-food, and, furthermore, we believe 

 that such rubbish would greatly interfere with the roots 

 taking a firm hold in the soil. This rubbish must work up 

 towards the surface by the action of the frost, the same as 

 stones, which would be a great nuisance in a garden until 

 removed. 



THE PEAR-BLIGHT. 



The so-called fire-blight is the most dangerous disease that 

 the pear-tree is subject to ; but whether it is caused by the 

 sudden changes of tlfe atmosphere, imperfect drainage, or 

 heavy manuring remains, in a measure, to be proved. 



The disease makes its appearance at different periods, — 

 sometimes in early spring, before the trees put out, and 

 through June and July, long after the leaves are out, attack- 

 ing the branches first. We believe that heavy manuring has 

 every thing to do with this disease, as stimulating the soil too 

 highly with rich manure forces immature growth, which can- 

 not stand the changes of our climate without injury. Mr. 

 Richard Webster of Haverhill says that he has been almost 

 entirely exempt from this disease in an orchard of over four 

 hundred pear-trees. He laid it down to grass seven years 

 ago, and it has borne heavy crops of fine hardy fruit nearly 

 every year since. He also says that his orchard has had no 

 top-dressing of any kind during that time, which is a strong 

 argument against heavy manuring. We have said, and be- 

 lieve it, that over-manuring and imperfect drainage are some 

 of the causes that produce the blight : still there are other 

 agents that work death to all kinds of fruit-trees, and one 

 is growing corn, oats, barley, or rye between and around 

 them, especially corn, which draws from the soil its fertilizing 

 substance or materials, robbing the trees of that which by 

 nature belongs to them. This is proved by the present 

 appearance of a once beautiful pear-orchard, of some one 

 hundred trees or more, owned and cultivated by Mr. Albert 

 Kimball of Bradford. This orchard was set out in 1864, and 

 has been planted, to our knowledge, with corn almost every 

 year for the last ten years, growing every year a heavy 

 crop ; but what has been the result ? The trees made a fine 

 growth during the first eight years ; and after that Mr. Kim- 

 ball began to lose some of his trees from the blight, and kept 



