48 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[February, 



us lusfious crops fov years, before the younptrec | 

 in ita stead, matures into bearing. If tlie fruit of 

 the old tree is not clioire, graft good kinds into 

 ita sound shoots and Hnibs. Tliey give return 

 on such, much sooner than on young trees. Tlic 

 pear and apple, especially, reward our kindly 

 help to their waning powei^s. 



But do yt)ur work with thoughtful care. A good 

 deal of chisel and mallet surgery must be used. 

 The horse-.shoers foot-knife is therefore in parts a 

 very useful tool. But all your cutting and saw- 

 ing and cleansing must be followed by the very 

 choicest culture and tree food, top dressed. The 

 right method and scope of the work can best be 

 shown by e.xamidcj. 



Twenty-five yrars ago, I came to live on an 

 ancient homestead, full of old fruit trees. Among 

 them was a venerable Harvest Pear, Annie Jo- 

 hannot, going to the bad. Its limbs were de- 

 cayed and tumbling. One side of its trunk was 

 gone. The whole heart wood worm-eaten and 

 rotten. The half shell left of its body had only 

 about three inches of bark and sound wood. Yet 

 it was still making vigorous growth of stout 

 young shoots. With gouge-chisel and mallet, I 

 dug out all the worm-eaten and decayed wood, 

 covered the sound wood beneath with thick paint, 

 and stopped all the holes of ants or borers. All 

 unthrifty and rotten limbs I lopped ofl'. Then 

 wide around the tree, with lavish hand, I spread 

 on the top surface rich manure. The sound 

 limbs I grafted with choice pears. 



Under this thorough surgery, food and nur- 

 ture, the old thing about to be turned into the 

 wood pile, has grown and flourished with abun- 

 dant return for my care. Thus for twenty-five 

 years, it has been a comfort and most useful test- 

 place to get quick returns for good fruits, old 

 or new. 



The same regimen will win for the apple 

 trees like rewards. I never had one quite as bad 

 off as that old Harvest Pear. But lots of them 

 with hollow trunks, and great rotted and worm- 

 eaten limb-holes. The way to serve such, is to 

 dig and scoup out all the decay. Somehow, get 

 down to the solid wood ; then fill the holes with 

 good hydraulic cement, and where very large, 

 mix and pack into the cement, with an iron rod, 

 a lot of sharp small st«nes. Fill plump to the 

 surface. Let the edges of the cavity be brought 

 close to the bark. It will then gradually curl in 

 and heal over the edge, and sometimes the whole 

 wound. You thus shut out moisture, air, and 

 Jill the nameless things that live and fatten on 



decay. An old tree so saved, is worth a half 

 dozen young fellows, for whose show of fruit you 

 must wait for years. You will find the process 

 of waste and rot to stop, and your tree start 

 ahead with the vigor almost of a renewed 

 youth. Still "il/atit la jeunesae — a little of that 

 youth you recall by your care. 



DISEASE IN PEARS. 



HY lUCUKRK, LOUISIANA, MO. 



The writer has been mucVi interested in the 

 perusal of Prof. Brainard's views on Pear blight, 

 but more so in examining your comments upon 

 his theory. If not out of place, you will plcjise 

 answer the following questions, viz. : Is the 

 disease called blight, in your section the same 

 tliat proves so destructive to our trees in the 

 West? Does- not starvation have something to 

 do with the disease in the East, as well as in the 

 West? Every season shows us here that sound 

 trees of hardy sorts, planted in well-drained soil, 

 properly cultivated for three years and the sur- 

 face supplied with proper plant food, do not 

 blight, or more properly starve. Pear trees die 

 here, and they usually commence dying at the 

 extremities, turning black, as death proceeds 

 downwards. An occasional spot is discovered 

 on the trunk of a tree which seems to be other- 

 wise sound. This spot if examined with a lens 

 when not more than one-quarter of an inch in 

 diameter, will be found to have a puncture in the 

 centre, probably made by some misguided insect 

 which oviposits in a tree that does not furnish 

 proper food for its young, as no larvse have been 

 discovered in the aff'ected part in this section. 

 The poisonous egg dissolves very soon, and ex- 

 tends rapidly until it becomes too much diluted 

 to decompose more sap. The dead bark remains 

 stationary, while the living bark around the poi- 

 soned spot swells out, leaving a depression. If the 

 dead portion extends half around the limb or 

 trunk, it usually kills, with us. It will probably 

 be objected, that the instinct of injurious insects 

 is perfect, and that the provident mother never 

 oviposits in tlic bark of trees that do not furnish 

 food for the young larva?. To this objection it may 

 be safely said that instinct in insects, in many in- 

 stances,-prove3 to be imperfect. The snout beetle 

 called curculio, will not climb a plum tree, the 

 limbs of which rub against the side of a build- 

 ing, or where vibratory sounds are produced by 

 wires stretched from tree to tree. The sounds 

 will not injure him, but his imperfect instinct 



