128 



VITALITY AND LONGEVITY IN FRUIT TREES. 



ON VITALITY AND LONGEVITT IN rRUIT TREES. 



BY PROFESSOR TURNER. ILLINOIS COLLEGE. 



Mr. Downing — Deak Sir — In my commu- 

 nication of April last, I did not intend to 

 pledge myself for the next number, though I 

 did intend to have written before this time. 

 I was doubtful, until I saw the article in 

 print, whether you would think proper to 

 publish it. At that time, which was about 

 the middle of April, I had just received 

 about 150 seedling pear trees from Iowa, 

 200 miles north of this, which I had pro- 

 cured for the purpose of prosecuting my 

 experiments in my fruit yard. 



The buds had all burst before they came 

 to hand; they were about five years old, 

 and seven feet high. According to my 

 principles, I carefully reset them, and they 

 ought all to have lived, notwithstanding 

 their unfavorable condition ; but, to my 

 utter surprise, most of them, in the course 

 of two or three weeks, shed off all their 

 living buds and leaves, and apparently 

 died. This was the first fact that I had 

 seen, which I could not reconcile to my 

 theory. I knew not how to dispose of it to 

 my own satisfaction, and forbore to write 

 you until I could. However, in a few 

 weeks they all revived, and have now start- 

 ed finely into their August growth. This, 

 on the other hand, greatly confirms me in 

 my previous opinions ; for not one tree in 

 ten, which had no seedling root, would, 

 under like circumstances, have recovered. 

 Their temporary failure was owing to obvi- 

 ous causes. 



After they had revived, another most 

 interesting fact occurred, the results of 

 which I have waited to see. One afternoon 

 in May I grafted about fifty Beurre Diel 

 pear scions into the roots of small thorns 



one year old, beneath the ground. Some 

 scions from the same bunch had been 

 grafted before, and were growing vigor- 

 ously in the same row ; and the tree from 

 which they were taken in winter was stand- 

 ing near by in perfect health. The day 

 after the grafts were inserted became sud- 

 denly excessively hot, — thermometer stand- 

 ing at above 90 degrees. 



The scions generally stood covered in 

 the earth except one bud and about two 

 inches of the top. Now mark the result : 

 The third day, to my utter surprise, I found 

 every scion, which stood fairly exposed to 

 the sun at three o'clock the day before, with 

 a ring of the bark, about one-quarter of an 

 inch wide, entirely blackened and killed; 

 extending sometimes half round, and some- 

 times entirely round ihe scion near the 

 ground, at that point where the reflected 

 and direct rays of the sun struck the scion 

 in the same place. About half the whole 

 number grafted were in this condition ; 

 while all those which were at that hour ac- 

 cidentally shaded by a clod of earth, or a 

 dissevered branch, or twig, or by the adja- 

 cent trees, were every one unharmed, and 

 are still growing finely. As to the sun- 

 struck scions, those that stood leaning from 

 the sun, and were blackened all round, all 

 turned black to the top and died immedi- 

 ately ; while those which were, from their 

 position or other cause, so far protected as 

 to be injured only partly round the scion, 

 lingered along and exhibited all the symp- 

 toms of ordinary blight until they died. 

 Not one that was blackened that fatal day 

 has survived, and not one not blackened 

 that day, has died. Here is, it strikes me, 



