1878.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



Ill 



CRACKING OF THE PEAR. 



BY P. H. FOSTER, BABYLOX, L. I. 



I see in the Feb. Monthly, page 52, your 

 INotes on the cracking of the Pear ; you claim it 

 is clear to all who have given close observation 

 to the subject, that there are several, if not 

 many causes ; as much as to say we are all grop" 

 ing in the dark. I have never as yet learned of 

 a remedy from our men of superior wisdom ; but 

 hold they do not see the exact process in 

 which the fungus is conveyed to the fruit. I am 

 fully satisfied from the experiments I have 

 made, the disease can be exterminated. In order 

 to test my theory, an isolated specimen should 

 be selected which is bearing cracked fruit, all 

 the last summer's growth or wood taken off ex- 

 cept a few blossom buds. I hold the fungus 

 after being established on a tree, is perpetuated 

 on that tree, by its propagation on the young 

 wood and fruit ; there is no doubt a diiference in 

 the susceptability of fruits, in taking on this con- 

 dition; but close observation will disclose the 

 fact, that the young wood of all varieties of Pear 

 trees do not present the same appearance. 

 Some contain an unbroken cist wherein the fun- 

 gus lies ; in others the cist has opened the fall 

 before, and become harmless. I will give you 

 an extract of a letter to F. W., Feb. 18, 1874: 

 Dear Sir : — " I find the wood on the Lawrence 

 Pear least infected by fungus; Duchess, Bartlett, 

 Belle Lucrative, very slightly; Beurre Diel, 

 Flemish Beauty, and White Doyenne most. The 

 above observations are pointed. To one year old 

 wood, it should appear a thick skinned pear may 

 resist the injur}' done in a measure ; think the 

 living principle of fungi on some varieties re- 

 mains enclosed in the cist during the winter, and 

 and does not open until spring when new growth 

 commences, while in other varieties the cist 

 opens the latter part of the same season of fun- 

 gus propagation, and thereby begomes harm 

 less. It would be well to look for the living 

 spore or seed and ascertain the point." 



CELESTIA APPLES. 



BY R. J. BLACK, BREMEX, OHIO. 



There is plenty of room above, as was said to 

 the youth who thought a certain occupation too 

 crowded ; so with fruit. So the catalogue is full 

 to overflowing, yet there is plenty of room for 

 the finest productions. 



Dr. L. S. Mote has placed every lover of fine 

 fruit under lasting obligations by originating this 



delicious apple. It certainly merits all the good 

 things Dr. Warder has said of it. When first 

 brought to notice by him, he wrote that it " per- 

 haps excels the famous Dyer or Pomme Koy- 

 ale ;" but after a number of years' experience 

 there is no room for doubt. It "excels" the lat- 

 ter in all particulars : growth, bearing, size, 

 beauty and quality. Grown in the same or- 

 chards with such fine varietes as Early Joe, 

 Champlain, Garden Royal, Richard's Graft, Fall 

 Pippin, Ohio Xonpareil, Sparks, Evening Party, 

 Grimes, Golden, &c. What the Cincinnati Horti- 

 cultural Society said of Ohio Nonpareil 20 years 

 ago may more emphatically be said of Celestia : 

 better than the best. The tree is a fine, upright 

 stocky grower ; shoots rather short-jointed, dull 

 reddish-ln-own with considerable light-grayish 

 marking, somewhat downy and spotted; buds 

 prominent, pointed; leaves dark-green, thick, 

 ovate, acuminate, irregularly crenate. One of 

 the most beautiful and healthy trees in all stages 

 of growth, and an excellent bearer. To describe 

 the fine quality of the large beautiful yellow 

 fruit, is not easy ; but Dr. Warder comes as near 

 it as words will allow : " Flesh yellow, very fine 

 grained, very tender, juicy; flavor sub-acid, 

 sprightly, aromatic, delicious. Use, table or 

 kitchen; season, September; quality, very best." 

 — [Armrican Horticultural Annual, 18G7, page 

 63.) 



Its one fault is that it does not keep till April. 

 But in higher latitudes this will not Ije against it, 

 for it is well known that Cogswell and other apples 

 which keep well in the Xorth, are ripe and gone 

 in Southern Ohio, before the first of November. 

 Here, about one degree north of the place of its 

 origin, Celestia ripens in October, being a month 

 later ; and with no particular care keeps sound 

 and perfect until after Christmas. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Fruit Culture ix Texas.— Professor S. 

 B. Buckley says that the apple does not 

 succeed well in the warmer parts of Texas, 

 unless " Southern varieties from Southern nur- 

 series " are planted. The blight, which it 

 seems now to be proved is caused by a minute 

 fungus, kills thousands of trees in the State. On 

 his grounds at Austin feAV have died. There are 

 old trees at El Paso nine feet in circumference 

 three feet from the ground. They were planted 

 by the Spaniards a hundred years ago. Dr. 

 i Buckley thinks they are the largest pear trees in 



