16 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[January, 



start off finely, then a cold spell in May with 

 frost, which checks suddenly the growth of the 

 plants. The leaf spots and turns red, and by 

 the time the fruit ought to ripen, the plant has 

 no vitality left in it. Having frequently exam- 

 ined the roots, I have always found them in- 

 fested with a blueish louse, sometimes so numer- 

 ous that they cover the leaf-stems. This I think 

 is one great cause of the trouble generally 

 known as the blight. In favorable seasons, 

 when everything conduces to the continued 

 growth of the plants, the louse has no chance to 

 gain any advantage over them ; but, as soon 

 as the weather is too cold or too dry with 

 cold, they increase rapidly and suck all the life 

 out of the young rootlets, which weakens the 

 plants, and gives fungus or any other disease a 

 chance to affect the leaf. Whenever the leaf is 

 perfectly green the roots will be found all right, 

 but when the leaf is spotted or red, early in the 

 season, something is wrong at the root, and I 

 have always found that louse there, at some 

 time in greater or less numbers. I am aware 

 that there is a sun-scald, which some varieties, 

 such as Jucunda, are liable to, but I refer only 

 to the blight that attacks all kinds. Nothing is 

 exempt from it in some seasons. I do not say 

 this is the cause, but as far as my observation 

 goes, I have good reason to believe it is; and 

 think if we can find a remedy to destroy the lice 

 on the roots, we would have little or no blight 

 on such hardy kinds as Wilson, Monarch of the 

 West, etc. I have been trying liquid tobacco, 

 which I think helped, but was not thoroughly 

 effectual. I think, if those, whose plants get 

 affected next May or June, will give them a 

 thorough examination, they will find the roots 

 affected as well as the foliasre. 



BETTER FRUITS ON OLD PEAR TREES. 



BY GEN. WM. H. NOBLE, BRIDGEPORT, CONN. 



I used to wonder much, when a fruit was said 

 to become more luscious with the age of the 

 tree. The truth came home to me very out- 

 spoken in a Pear tree which I planted fof a gray 

 Doyenne. It grew in an old nursery here, and 

 had reached very good size. Though claimed as 

 a gray Doyenne, and though a very fine fruit, it 

 was not this kind. I have never seen its like, 

 and know not its name. Its regular season is 

 December, and it sometimes stretches into Janu- 

 ary, but about as often fails to put in an appear- 

 ance at the table after November. 



The tree was ten or fifteen years old, and bore 

 a very fair, well-ripened fruit ; it was carefully 

 transplanted, with a mass of fibrous roots, into 

 a deep made soil, piled over an old cow yard. 

 It soon took hold, and started out with a new 

 life and tremendous growth. In a year or two 

 after, it bloomed out and yielded fruit in abund- 

 ance, but they tasted more like a pumpkin than 

 a pear. They were large and fair, but never got 

 any more ripeness of flesh or taste than an 

 Osage Orange. I tried it a year or two with the 

 same ill luck, but all the while it kept up the same 

 tremendous growth. From seven to ten feet 

 in height it stretched up to twenty, and had girth 

 and spread in proportion. I made up my mind 

 that I must have been mistaken about the right 

 tree, and that it was some other kind than that 

 which had tempted me to buy at a large price, 

 and to give great care to its transplanting. I 

 could not believe that such a green, unripenmg, 

 som-, gritty, black walnut kind of Pear could 

 grow on the same limbs whose fruit I had 

 eaten with so much relish. 



The Beurre Giffard was about that time 

 brought out as a fine early Pear — a quality which 

 it has never belied. I wanted just that early 

 Pear in that very place, to ripen before the cold 

 northwest winds of Fall which so boldly strike 

 could tlirash off its fruit. In two years, 

 every limb grew the Beurre Giffard. Its growth 

 was healthy and fairly vigorous, but its early 

 bearing trait, its drooping limbs, of less upright 

 and stalwart growth than the stock, helped its 

 prompt fruitage. It has borne me every sea- 

 son from its second year, a splendid crop of Gif- 

 fards. 



But here comes in another phase and service 

 of the tree which I wish to note. Below the 

 Beurre Giffard graft, the grafted limbs put out 

 new shoots. These I let grow, year by year, 

 they increased somewhat, but all, instead of that 

 rampant upright growth, whose fruitage so puz- 

 zled and provoked, have stout, short jointed 

 wood, which put out fruit buds right off". Even 

 shoots, not over six inches in length, bear. 

 So now from the same tree, every year I have, 

 in July and August a full crop of the early Giffards , 

 and from the old stock, a late October gathering 

 of large, ovate and obovate, obtuse pyriform 

 Pears. They ripen well, and mature into a 

 rich golden rustidoat, and a fine 3'ellow-fleshed 

 late Fall fruit. 



The cause of this change, as of that in many 

 Pears, with the age of trees, doubtless is, that a. 



