1883.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



333 



perience indicates certain death and the other 

 prospective health, by its apphcation, pear growers 

 are interested to know the why and wherefore of 

 these diverging hnes of experience. There is one 

 thing in this oil question that is not particularly 

 clear to me and that is, it is matter of guess-work 

 whether it was boiled or raw linseed oil that was 

 used in the cases cited. And this query may make 

 qui:e a difference as to the intellectual working 

 out of the success of the one, or the discouragement 

 of the other. I will state this much however, of 

 my own experience with a fine thrifty tree detected 

 quite early in the stages of blight, and to which I 

 gave an application of linseed oil, that painters 

 had been using on the premises, but did not pay 

 any attention whether it was boiled or raw. The 

 whole tree went to destruction, but could have 

 been saved by the judicious use of the knife, but I 

 preferred to let the experiment take its own course. 

 Since this experience I have applied raw oil to a 

 few plum and pear trees in healthy condition, and 

 a year's observation indicates health and encour- 

 agement, as may be seen by lifting or peeling off 

 the cellular tissue, the underpart looking green 

 and healthy, while on the outer part there is no in- 

 dication of any bad effects. As I understand it, 

 boiled linseed oil, as distinguished from raw oil, is 

 by the former containing either litharge or oxide 

 of manganese as dryers, and, I should judge, two 

 very doubtful ingredients for the benefit of either 

 healthy or diseased vegetation. 



[The trees referred to were on the grounds of 

 the Editor of this magazine. They were white 

 with scale — so white that some appeared white- 

 washed. The various remedies recommended 

 were tried and failed. The Editor, traveling in the 

 South, came across very healthy trees which had 

 been washed with linseed oil. On his return home 

 his pear and apple trees were all painted with raw 

 linseed oil. Every insect was destroyed, and they 

 have not been a trouble since. The trees to-day, 

 are models of health. So many people, however, 

 have killed their trees by using something they 

 call "linseed oil," that the Editor says no more 

 about it, than to relate his own experience when it 

 is asked for. If he had trees suffering from scale 

 he would not hesitate a moment about using lin- 

 seed oil ; others must use their own judgment. 



Our correspondent is entirely in error in his be- 

 lief that "no champion has been able to refute the 

 bacterial origin of pear blight." Prof. Penhallow 

 has recently given an elaborate scientific paper, 

 in which he contends that it is the lack of mineral 

 elements in the soil which causes peach " yellows," 



a disease joined with fire-blight, as referable to 

 bacteria. This surely is an issue. To our mind^ 

 it is not creditable to what should be called 

 "science," that two such directly opposite views 

 are given to the world under its name. — Ed. G. M.] 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



The Curculio on the Pacific Coast. — The 

 Editor looked closely but could see no signs of the 

 curculio anywhere on the other side of the Rocky 

 Mountains. They seem to be marching westward, 

 however. On some wild plum bushes along the 

 streams near IMandan, Dakota, all the fruit had 

 been attacked by the insect. 



A Great Pear Exhibit. — Edwin Satterthwaite, 

 who always makes a fine exhibit, exceeded him- 

 self at the last meeting of the American Pomologi- 

 cal Society. He had 200 varieties, with not one 

 mean or scurvy dish among the whole. In our 

 opinion, it was the finest exhibit ever made in this 

 country, if not in the whole world. 



The Best Strawberries. — The Editor of the 

 Country Gentleman sent to a number of leading 

 strawberry growers for the names of the three best 

 strawberries. Not one of them sent the same 

 three names. Correspondents of the same paper 

 send poor accounts of many lately-praised new 

 kinds. The old Charles Downing seems to have 

 a large number of friends yet ; and the Cumber- 

 land Triumph holds its own. 



Good Strawberries. — The strawberry corres- 

 pondents of the various agricultural papers are 

 out in full force with their observations during the 

 past season. As a general rule, the favorites of 

 the past two or three seasons have proved good for 

 nothing ; but it is gratifying to know that in al- 

 most every case the writer has some new kind 

 in his eye, which will give us all that we lose in 

 such once-favored berries as Sharpless, Bidwell, 

 Crescent, and so on. Of the new names suggested 

 we should judge there are about fifty which " are 

 likely to prove all that can be desired in a popular 

 strawberry." 



Cinchona. — We have seen it stated that the 

 government ought to take it in hand to encourage 

 the cultivation of cinchona bark for quinine in our 

 country, "because they have been successfully 

 grown in California." At the time this statement 

 was made, the writer of this expressed his doubts 

 of its accuracy, simply because no other Brazilian 



