522 



PEAR TRKi: BLIGHT AND PEACH BLOSSOMS. 



the manner before described, and the con- 

 sequence is, that they are now sound and 

 uninjured. I know not why tlie same treat- 

 ment should not cause pear trees, as well 

 as others, to mature their wood perfectly, 

 but have had linle opportunity to prove it. 

 I tried it in one instance, upon a cherry tree, 

 with success. But I have suffered much 

 from a blight, which was not the conse- 

 quence of a late autumnal growth of wood. 

 The spring and summer of 1S45, were, in 

 this vicinity, exceedingly dry. Most of my 

 young pear trees lost their leaves about the 

 first of August. Some time in September 

 we had slight showers, which caused them 

 to put forth new leaves, but the dry weather 

 returning, these were soon scorched and 

 withered, without any of them attaining 

 their usual size. The winter found my 

 trees in a starving, enfeebled condition. I 

 lost the tops of most of my engrafted trees, 

 and some of the stocks. The Bartlet, Easter 

 Beurre, Beurre d'Aremberg, and Passe Col- 

 mar suffered much, while the Winter Neles 

 escaped unharmed. In February, I dis- 

 covered the blight upon some of the young 

 trees, the whole tops of which were turning 

 black ; " black patches of shrivelled bark" 

 were to be seen upon others, but I did not 

 know the full extent of the evil till the com- 

 ino- spring. I cut scions from many of the 

 trees, which afterwards proved blighted and 

 worthless. The blight was not confined to 

 my pear trees. I lost many fine plum trees, 

 of two and three years' growth from the 

 bud. That this disease was occasioned by 

 the freezing and thawing of the sap appears 

 probable, but it was clearly not referable 

 to a late growth of un ripened wood, as a 

 primary cause. The coat of whitewash you 

 advise, is the most hopeful remedy which 

 occurs to me for this kind of blight. 



Since writing the abDve I have been 

 examining the trees in my nursery, with 



reference to this subject. I find some cases 

 of blight among my pear trees, confined to 

 trees of feeble growth, but among the plum 

 trees I can count hundreds which have been 

 killed, or much injured during the last win. 

 ter. The plum trees cast their leaves early 

 in August last year, much earlier than ever 

 before, in consequence, as we supposed, of 

 the protracted drouth, the summer having 

 been with us, like the preceding one, ex- 

 tremely dry. Few of these trees had any 

 autumnal growth. 



Is it not possible that the scorching rays 

 of the sun of the last August and Septem- 

 ber, poured for six or eight successive weeks 

 upon the naked, unprotected trunks and 

 branches of these trees, may have been, at 

 least, the predisposing cause of the malady 

 with which they are affected ? 



Permit me here to say, that I have had 

 much faith in the perfection of your theory 

 of Fire Blight, and have supposed that it 

 contained a solution of the whole mystery. 

 I had supposed that (the Insect Blight ex- 

 cepted) unripened wood was absolutely ne- 

 cessary to its existence, and had flattered 

 myself that we should soon have the disease 

 under our control. You may then easily 

 imagine that the truth, deduced from facts 

 which had come under my observation during 

 the last two years, was unwelcome ; but un- 

 welcome as it was, and is, it is not loo 

 strongly stated, when I say that where I 

 have lost, by blight, one tree which had a 

 late autumnal growth of wood, I have lost 

 ten others which had no autumnal growth, 

 but which ripened their wood and lost their 

 leaves earlier than is desirable. 



I have extended my remarks upon blight 

 much farther than I at first intended. I 

 wish to say a few words upon the preserva- 

 tion of the blossom buds of peach trees from 

 destruction during the winter. I have, in 

 an adjoining township, remarked for severa 



