REiMARKS ON LEAF BLIGHT. 



euce; as I doubt not all of them have consulted their own interest sufficiently to make 

 some experiments upon the matter. 



The disease in question makes its first appearance in the shape of small brown spots or 

 blotches, upon the under side of the lower leaves of the trees affected; from thence spread- 

 ing rapidly to the neighboring leaves and branches, and gradually destroying the foliage, 

 from the bottom upwards, until finall}'' the plants remain leafless, or nearly so, in mid- 

 summer or early autumn. The}' usually attempt a second growth the same season, but 

 the result is only a feeble, sickly shoot, which also sheds prematurely its leaves, and 

 mournfully waits for another season of similar attempts and like success : its spindling 

 branches and thorny stock, giving but poor encouragement to the cultivator, that his ut- 

 most skill with budding or puning knife, will cause a vigorous shoot to appear form its 

 hide-bound stem, or induce his puny seedling to assume an air of health and beauty. Alas ! 

 bitter experience satisfies him that hope for leaf-blighted stocks is of that character which 

 " makes the heart sick." 



Its attacks are not entirely confined to small seedlings or nurszry trees, although it is 

 to these that it is most injurious; nor docs it limit its depredations to a single town or state; 

 from Belgium to Iowa, its presence is almost universal in grounds which have for any con- 

 siderable length of time been devoted to the cultivation of pear and plum trees; some- 

 times a bearing tree is the object of its attention, in which case, a leafless tree in August, 

 with immature and blackened fruit, is the reward of the waiting cultivator; a sorry re- 

 muneration to one who has expended his time and patience in catching " Turks," or 

 pinching his pj^ramids ; in cutting off knots, or watching for the first symptom of the fire 

 blight; but as it is not often that its choice falls upon the orchard or standard tree, I shall 

 confine my present remarks to its ravages in the nursery. 



It is a fivct well known to most nurserymen, that this disease has been the cause of more 

 failures in the rearing of pear and plum trees, both in the nursery row and the seed bed, 

 than all other causes combined. The stock which is attacked becomes impracticable to the 

 budder before the season arrives for inoculation, or if, perchance, he is able to raise the 

 bark sufliciently for his purpose, the languid state of the plant renders his efforts almost 

 useless; and even when he succeeds in working the refractory subject, those which have 

 been severely attacked make, at first, but an indifferent growth. The injury is not always 

 nor commonly mortal, for stocks which have been attacked, appear after working, to re- 

 cover their health, and finally to make as good trees as others; but the delay and vexa- 

 tion to the nurseryman is intolerable. 



In the seed bed, he first discovers small patches, where the smaller and weaker plants 

 have a brownish appearance, and are shedding their lower leaves, which patches increase 

 in size, luitil thewliole bed looks as if a fire had passed over it. If it is his first acquaint- 

 ance with the pest, he consults some author on fruit trees, but finds no disease treated of 

 which answers the description, and consoles himself with the idea that it will soon disap- 

 pear ; or, perhaps, he applies those universal remedies, lime and ashes, but with no good re- 

 sult. Some afflicted cultivators have, in their desperation, applied salt to their suffering 

 subjects, until the entire disappearance of foliage convinced them that even salt was unable 

 to save. Perhaps he consoles himself with the idea, that when he has them dibbled out 

 in nursery rows, this trouble will be over. But another season's experience convinces him 

 that whatever ailed his stocks, they have carried their ailment with them, and seem deter- 

 mined to perpetuate' the indisposition, by giving it to their neighbors. 



My observations lead me to the belief, that whatever be the cause of this difBculty 

 is not to be found in the work of an Insect. The most critical examination which 



