112 State Hoi-ticiiltnrai Society. 



PEAR BLIGHT. 



(Conrad Atil, Smithville, Mo.) 



The blight is nearly always caused by too rapid growth. The rem- 

 edy: set on thin land. If you have no thin land, do not cultivate but 

 little, one year for peach, plum or cherry and for pears not at all. Apple 

 trees will bear two years cultivation if land is very rich, if not overly 

 rich, three or four vears will do. 



EVERGREENS, HOW TO CARE FOR AND PLANT. 



(Read by Joseph Hurley, gardener, to James W. Paul, Jr., Radnor, Pa., 

 before the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.) 



Evergreens should be heeled-in as soon as received. A great mis- 

 take, in my judgment, is frequently made in having the holes already 

 dug in advance of the arrival of the trees, but the anxiety of the gardener 

 to get the job off his hands naturally inspires him to be prepared to plant 

 them as soon as they arrive and, as frequently happens, the planting 

 takes more time than he calculated, and the results are that the trees are 

 lying on the ground from perhaps four to six hours before they are all 

 planted, exposed to the prevailing dry winds of either autumn or spring. 



Now, there is one point to which I would like to call especial atten- 

 tion and which I think is not sufticiently well understood by most per- 

 sons. The reason why an evergreen cannot stand getting even partially 

 dry, as the deciduous trees can, is that the sap of the e^^ergreen is of a 

 resinous nature and, after once becoming dry, it can never be brought back 

 to its normal condition, no matter how you water it or care for it after- 

 wards ; whereas, if most deciduous trees become somewhat dried out they 

 can be brought back to a normal condition by soaking the roots, or if 

 necessity requires it, burying the whole tree, roots and branches, in the 

 ground for a week or ten days, and unless the roots have been entirely 

 dried out before burying the tree you will find your tree comes out of 

 its grave ready to start to grow. 



Half an hour of exposure to a hot sun or a drying wind is often 

 enough to dry out the roots of an evergreen ; notwithstanding it may 

 have the best of the gardener's care in planting' and ample watering after 

 it is planted, it will eventually die. And while the water question is in 



