THE FIRE BLIGHT — CRACKING OP PEARS. 



THE FIRE BLIGHT. — CRACKING OF PEARS. 



BY J. H. ERNST, CINCINNATI, OHIO. 



HAVE been a learner for the last fifty years, a large por- 

 tion of it devoted to Horticulture. My zeal has 

 prompted me to a close scrutiny of the various pheno- 

 r^^^ywir ViVa^I'IO* iiiena that often cross the Horticulturist's path, the so- 

 ' '" lution of which has not always been as satisfactory as is 



desirable. This is especially the case with the Pear, the 

 trees and the maladies to which it is subject. The cause 

 of the fire-blight, so called, I think I fully understand, 

 experience confirming the correctness of the views presented 

 by me on former occasions in the pages of the Horticul- 

 turist. This summer has afi"orded another opportunity for testing them. Those 

 who have paid attention to the matter will probably remember that I suggested, 

 that with the return of a wet summer, we should have the fire-blight, which seemed 

 almost to have disappeared for several years. This has proved so, most fatally so, 

 in some situations destroying very fine trees. I have had much of it in my own 

 trees this summer — some very severe attacks in large and small trees, on the Quince 

 and on their own stocks. I have however succeeded in checking it in every instance 

 and saved my trees. And as a knowledge of the saving or curing process is of more 

 importance to the cultivator, as that is a practical operation within his reach, and 

 the other, the cause of it, is not, with our present enfeebled stock of trees, I will 

 here give more fully my method of checking it than I have elsewhere, that others 

 may practice it if they will. 



The moment I discover symptoms of Blight, I proceed with the knife ; if in the 

 limb, I lop it ofi" until I come to the sound and healthy wood, then I examine down- 

 wards ; I often find other branches, and sometimes the body of the tree afl'ected. 

 This is very readily discovered by the dark and unnatural appearance of the bark ; 

 this will sometimes be found in streaks up and down, at other times in blotches, at 

 times encircling the branch or body of the tree. If there is any doubt about it, it 

 is only necessary to cut into the bark a little, when its unhealthy condition will ap- 

 pear. Just so far as this is discoverable, I carefully take ofi" with my sharp knife, 

 the outward bark, to the sapwood, being careful to do this as little harm as possible. 

 It will be found that the injury is in this outward bark; that it has not yet seriously 

 affected the sapwood, and the inner coating of vitality, but which it soon will if per. 

 mitted to remain. I have invariably found when I have attended to this process in 

 time, that soon a new and healthy bark is formed, and the remaining unhealthy 



VOL. 5. 



J -Z. 



