DISCUSSIONS AT SOUTH HAVEN. 369 



raiu had fallen to wet the roots. If a part of a tree became blighted it should 

 be cut off immediately, as the blighted sap was conveyed from one part of the 

 tree to the rest, and so the whole tree would become blighted. The pear tree 

 blight differed in nature from the peach yellows, as it did not attack the fruit. 



Mr. N. Phillips inquired, "How about the tree that is stinted after grov/ing 

 rapidly in the spring, and then blights ?" 



Mr. Bidwell said that which stinted the tree caused the blight. 



The Secretary stated that he had over a hundred pear trees of four to six 

 years growth, which were doing splendidly. He had lost only five or six dwarfs 

 by the quince being exposed ; had no blight. Some of the standards, and most 

 of the dwarfs were loaded with fruit, and all had made a strong growth. The 

 dwarfs had made a growth generally each year of many shoots of one to two feet 

 long, and every spring he cut all of this back to two or three buds. He pruned 

 the standards the same way, only not so closely. Some of the standards which 

 had become large enough to bear a full crop, and which made a very vigorous 

 growth last year, he did not cut back last spring as that would stimulate a 

 thick growth of wood, but the last of July he thinned them out by clipping 

 back the surplus inner shoots, leaving a few buds of the new wood, which he 

 expected would develop fruit spurs. After any fruit tree has made a vigorous 

 growth during a moist warm season, it is prudence to prune back considerable 

 the next spring, lest the season be dry, and the roots be unable to supply the 

 demand of moisture for so much wood. It is well to preserve the vigor of the 

 tree and large sap vessels by giving the " roots the balance oj power." If the 

 tree is so vigorous that it will not fruit, clip the new growth in July, accordiog 

 to the maturity, and the circulation will be checked, the sap thickened, and 

 fruit buds developed. If increased growth of wood is wanted again, cultivate 

 early and often, and prune in the spring heavily. His soil is clay loam. 



Mr. Fitch showed a pear with black shrunken spots on it, inquiring the 

 eause. It was said to be mildew, and that the older the trees get the more the 

 fruit is subject to it. 



Mr. A. Griffin said he had found by experience that if the blighted portion 

 ef the tree was cut off to where there were no more traces of the disease, that 

 tree was no more likely to blight afterwards than others. 



Mr. L. H. Bailey said he had a pear orchard in gravelly sand ; had grown corn 

 and potatoes in it alternately each year. Only had one tree blight before this 

 year. It turned black from top to bottom almost instantly in a thunder storm. 

 It was a Bartlett, full of pears. Mr. Fletcher had a Bartlett tree killed during 

 the same shower. This year he had a Dearborn seedling tree blighted through 

 most of the top. His son, Liberty, says he bored into it just below the blight 

 and filled the hole with sulphur. The blight did not spread below, and strong 

 shoots grew out at the base of every blighted limb as well as others. He cut 

 the top off and the rest of the tree was still growing. Another tree, blighted 

 down to the ground, was cut back to the ground and the roots threw up sprouts. 

 He said the dust from the road killed the slugs from his trees. 



Mr. D. B. Williams said he once had a row of vigorous dwarf Dutchess pear 

 trees all blight in a day or two. They were on sandy soil. He thought cop- 

 peras would be found a remedy for blight. 



Mr. J, Lannin said that the first pear trees he set he put a bushel of manure 



in each hole dug for the tree. Most of them died, and the rest of them grew 



"very little. Trees that he planted in their places the next year did well. 



From his experience in getting trees he had lost many got from a distance, and 



47 



