422 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



11. We have heard it objected that trees grafted in the spring blight 

 in the graft during the summer. If the stocli has been affected during 

 the fall, blight will arise from it. If the scion had, in common with the 

 tree from which it was cut, been injured, blight must arise from it. 

 Blight is frequently caused in the nursery, and the cultivator who has 

 brought ti'ees from a distance, and with much expense, has scarcely 

 planted them before they show blight and die. 



12. It is objected that while only a single branch is at first affected 

 the evil is imparted to the whole tree, not only to the wood of last year, 

 but to the old branches. I reply, that if a single branch only should be 

 affected by fall frost, and be so affected as to become the depository of 

 much malignant fluid, it might gradually enter the system of the whole 



.tree, through the circulation. This fact shows why cutting is a partial 

 remedy; every diseased branch removes so much poison; it shows, also, 

 why cutting from below the seat of the disease (as if to fall below the 

 haunt of a supposed insect) is beneficial. The farther the cut is made 

 from that point where the sap has clogged the passages the less of it will 

 remain to enter the circulation. 



13. Ttees of great vigor of constitution, in whose system but little 

 poison exists, may succeed after a while in rejecting the evil and recover. 

 Where much enters the system the ti'ee must die, and with a suddenness 

 proportioned to the amount of poison circulated. 



14. A rich and dry soil would be likely to promote early gi'owth, and 

 the tree would finish its work in time, but a rich and moist soil, by forcing 

 the growth, would prepare the tree for blight, so that rich soils may pre- 

 vent or prepare for the blight, and the difference will be the difference 

 of the respective soils in producing an early growth. 



IV. Remedy.— So long as the blight was supposed to" be of insect 

 origin it appeared totally irremediable. If the foregoing reasoning be 

 found correct, it will be plain that the scourge can only be occasional; 

 that it may be in a degree prevented and to some extent remedied where 

 ic exists. 



1. We should begin by selecting for pear orchards a warm, light, 

 rich, dry and early soil. This will secure an early growth and ripen wood 

 before winter sets in. 



2. So soon as ascertained what kinds are early growers and early 

 ripeners of wood, such should be selected, as they will be least likely to 

 come under those conditions in which the blight will occur. 



3. Wherever orchai-ds are alreadj' planted, or where a choice of soils 

 can not be had, the cultivator may know by the last of August or Septem- 

 ber whether a fall growth is to be expected. To prevent it, I suggest 

 immediate root pruning. This will benefit the tree at any rate, and will, 

 probably, by restraining growth, prevent blight. 



4. Whenever blight has occurred, I know of no remedy but free and 

 early cutting. In some cases it will remove all diseased matter, in some 



