isn.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



49 



admonishes him to keep a safe distance from 

 such trees. By scarring the sound edges of the 

 bark around the sunken portion in the month of 

 June, the diseased spot will soon grow over and 

 the tree is not apparently injured. When the 

 limbs of recent growth qommence to turn black 

 with us, and we remove portions of bark, th» 

 whole shoot is found to be drying up, and no 

 slimy, decomposed sap can be found, while all 

 eastern writers claim that by breaking the bark 

 a slime or mucilaginous substance will at once 

 ooze out, and string down to the ground. 



These two opposite symptoms would seem to 

 indicate a different cause of death. Out of several 

 thousand Pear trees in my own bearing orchard 

 but one has been killed by spot blight within 

 the last five years, while seven have starved to 

 death. Those trees that were sound when 

 planted, and supplied with plant food in abun- 

 dance are sound, and even the intense freezing 

 of 1872, which congealed the mercury here, did 

 not break down the tissues of the sap vessels of 

 certain hardy sorts. Forest trees were worse 

 crippled that winter than Pear trees, so that in 

 this section the " frozen sap blight " theory won't 

 do ; particularly when it is remembered that 

 the Autumn was warm till quite late, and the 

 freeze came upon us suddenly. It seems to the 

 writer not difficult to prove that the main cause 

 of the destruction of this noble tree in the West 

 is starvation. The same cause may operate to 

 some extent in the East. But to handle this 

 much vexed question with comfort to the reader, 

 the earthy matter contained in the wood, bark 

 and fruit, as well as the peculiar appetite of the 

 tree must be placed before him. 



[The Fire Blight in the East, is just the same as 

 that in the West. Situation makes no difference 

 — soil makes no difference — system of culture 

 makes no difference. It comes to any and all 

 trees, once in a while wholly unexpected, and 

 leaves the locality often as suddenly as it came. 

 Trees which die gradually from the tips down- 

 wards, are not suffering from " Fire blight," but 

 from some other disease. There are many sourcei? 

 of disease — many symptoms. Under some cir- 

 cumstances the sap does freeze, and then "frozen 

 sap blight " is a reality.— Ed. G. M.] 



TWO GOaD PEARS. 



BY J. M. H., DOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



It is often with fruit growers as with those ol 

 other occupations, the things that have proved 



good, and are really valuable are often overlooked 

 or crowded aside to make room for some new 

 claimant for public attention. Often the new 

 article or fruit takes the lead for a while, but 

 soon disappears and is wholly lost sight of. 

 Pear cultivators in this vicinity are apt to set 

 too many new varieties for profit — those that 

 have not been fully proved. And I wish to com- 

 mend to the cultivators of the northern portions 

 of our country, through the Gardener's Monthly, 

 two Pears which have been tested and are suited 

 to the North. These are the Buffum and the 

 Sheldon, both of them pears of American origin, 

 and two as good varieties as have been produced 

 in America. The Buffum, if it were a little 

 larger, would certainly rank with the bet't of 

 pears. The tree is a fine grower, forms a regular 

 head, and is highly ornamental in any orchard. 

 The Sheldon is a fruit that cannot be surpassed 

 amongst pears. The tree does not make so regular 

 and symmetrical a head, yet it is as hardy as th« 

 Buffum. These two Pears are worthy the atten- 

 tion of fruit growers, and if more attention were 

 paid to these, we should not hear so much of 

 the failure of pears on account of the severe 

 winter. 



EDITORIAL ISOTES. 



Fruit Synonyms. — It is time Europe had an 

 association similar to our American Pomological 

 Society. For want of such, Europe is bothered 

 with synonyms. A recent writer tells us that 

 there the May Duke Cherry has^ sixty-two 

 different appellations, and Queen Hortense has 

 thirty-two; Peaches, Grosse Mignonne, fifty- 

 one; of the Pears, Doyenn6 d'Hiver, fifty-six, 

 and Catillac, sixty-eight. The two familiar va- 

 rieties of Grapes, Frankenthal (Black Ham- 

 burgh), and Chasselas de Fontainebleau (Royal 

 Muscadine ), have fifty-five and forty-one syn- 

 onyms respectively. 



Thinning Fruit.— We have always contended 

 that a man w*ho makes fruit growing a business, 

 and allows his trees to be injured by overbearing 

 ought to suffer. It has been objected against us 

 that thinning does not pay,— but A. % Dyck- 

 man, who has extensive Peach orchards at South 

 Haven, Mich., gives the Horticultural Society of 

 that place the following account, in substance, of 

 his mode of thinning the crop : A part of the 

 thinning is effected by pruning, when this is 

 needed. The cost is about five cents per bushel, 



