412 BOAKD OF AGRICULTUKE. 



INTERESTING LETTER FROM HENRY WARD BEECHER. 



The following communication was read before the Indiana Horti- 

 cultural Society and sent by Mr. Beecher to the Magazine of Horticulture 

 of Boston, where it was published, in the December issue, 1844: 



The year 1844 will long be remembered for the extensive ravages 

 of that disease hitherto denominated the fire-blight. Beginning at the 

 Atlantic coast, we have heard of it in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Ken- 

 tucky, Indiana, and as far as Tennessee; and it is probable that it has 

 been felt in every fruit growing state in the Union where the season of 

 1843 was the same as that west of the Allegheny range, namely, cold 

 in spring, dry throughout the summer, and a wet and warm fall, with 

 early and sudden Avinter. 



In Indiana and Ohio the blight has prevailed to such an extent as to 

 spread dismay among cultivators; destroying entire collections, taking 

 half the trees in large orchards, affecting both young and old ti-ees, 

 whether grafted or seedlings, in soils of every kind. Many have seen 

 the labors and fond hopes of years cut off in one season by an invis- 

 ible destroyer against which none could guard, because in the conflict- 

 ing opinions, none were certain whether the disease was atmospheric, 

 insect or chemical. 



I shall now proceed to describe that blight known in the Western 

 States (without pretending to identify it with the blight known in New 

 York and New England), to examine the theories proposed for its causa- 

 tion, and to present now what seems to me the true cause. 



I. Description.— Although the signs of it, as will appear in the sequel, 

 may be detected long before the leaves put out in the spring, yet its full 

 effects do not begin to appear until May, or if the spring be backward, 

 until June. On the wood of last year will be found a point where the 

 bark is either dead or dry, or else at the same point the bark will be 

 puffed, softened, is sappy with thickened sap, these two appearances de- 

 noting only different degrees of the same blight. Wherever the bark 

 is dead and dry, the limb will flourish above it, make new wood, ripen 

 its fruit, but perish the ensuing winter. In the other case, as soon as 

 the circulation becomes active, the point described shows signs of disease, 

 the leaf turns to a darker brown than is natural to its ordinary decay, 

 being nearly black, and the wood perishes. 



The disease, at first blights the terminal portion of the branch; but 

 the affection spreads gradually downward, and sometimes affects the 

 whole trunk. The time from the first appearance of the blight to that 

 in which the affected part dies is various; sometimes two or three weeks, 

 sometimes a day only, and sometimes, but rarely, even a few hours con- 

 summate the disease. 



