FRUIT CULTURE IX ILLINOIS. 



369 



legitimate inference from this single fact 

 would run somewhat as follows : " Set your 

 vine in the worst place on your premises 

 you can find — even where you suppose it 

 can never hear a berry ; neglect it all you 

 possibly can, except to pour cold water upon 

 its roots three times each day the year 

 round, and if all your other grapes blight it 

 will not." Now this case thus shows the 

 danger of inferences from single facts, which 

 is one end I had in view in citing it. With 

 this single exception, all remedies for grapes 

 this year have totally failed, so far as my 

 knowledge extends, wherever the vine stood 

 on a close bottomed soil, or subsoil of clay 

 or marl. 



Pear Blight. — Mr. Chamberlain, the 

 oldest and most experienced nurseryman 

 in this vicinity, invited me last September 

 to call and examine his pear trees, — saying 

 that he could there show me full proof of 

 my theory of blight, so far as this region 

 at least was concerned, if I would do so. 

 A few days after I rode out, and was my- 

 self quite surprised to see several of his 

 finest pear trees, from roots some ten years 

 old, sun-scalded on the southwest side. 

 The corticle appeared at first view as fresh 

 and healthy as ever. The trees had made a 

 fine vigorous growth through the summer ; 

 and at four feet distance from the trunk not 

 the slightest indication of any approxima- 

 tion to disease could at first be discovered. 

 But on cutting through the corticle with a 

 knife, the trunks were in many cases 

 blotched with streaks of dead, putrid bark, 

 although the last summer's growth of wood 

 directly under these blotches was as sound, 

 and clean, and as vigorous as on any other 

 part of the tree. These blotches invaria- 

 bly commenced on the southwest side of 

 the trunk or large limbs, at precisely that 

 point where the rays of the sun struck it 

 with greatest power, and generally where 



there was a slight crook or inclination to* 

 ward the sun. The poison from the blotch 

 seemed to diffuse itself upwards and down- 

 wards chiefly, but in some cases also late- 

 rally, almost or quite round the tree. In a 

 few days the leaves about the blotch be- 

 gan to turn black at the top ; and the whole 

 limb, or the whole tree, (as the case might 

 be,) connected with the blotch died. Mr. 

 Chamberlain was at work, himself, in his 

 fruit-yard every day, and says that he 

 knows that the trees were perfectly healthy 

 up to a peculiarly hot week in August, when 

 he accidentally discovered the mischief in 

 its incipient stages, in attempting to side- 

 graft a tree, and on close inspection found 

 it on several others ; none of which, how- 

 ever, were from seedling roots. And on 

 this point he cannot have been mistaken, 

 as the reason's growth directly under the 

 blotches clearly proves. Now this certainly 

 was ?iot frozen-sap blight. Still, it is the 

 blight that most troubles us here, however 

 it may be elsewhere, and which he, as well 

 as myself, once thought to be frozen-sap 

 blight ; but now we know that it is not. 



I have noticed no new developments of 

 the disease on the leaf of my own pear 

 trees which I described in my last, and of 

 course do not now expect to until spring. 



Cherry Trees. — I have read, with much 

 care and interest, the remarks of your es- 

 teemed correspondents on the bursting of 

 the bark on cherry trees ; and I cannot say 

 that their observations and philosophy are 

 not correct for their latitude and longitude. 

 But it certainly will not do here ; and no- 

 thing that has been tried, but peeling the 

 corticle, will do. It certainly is not true, 

 here, that the corticle continues an organic 

 part of the tree, and expands with its ex- 

 pansion until it easily bursts ; and a single 

 fact proves it. I have just been over to 

 measure a couple of cherry trees, of the 



