WINTER, OR FROZEN SAP BLIGHT. 175 



only means, is draining ; the surplus rank vegetable 

 and animal matter must be neutralized or decomposed 

 by the application of alkaline substances — ashes, lime, 

 marl, &c., which, as all experience shows, insure by 

 their direct influence on the sap, a short, stocky, and 

 well-ripened growth. Fifty bushels of lime, and half 

 that quantity of ashes, scattered over an acre, and 

 worked in with the plow, is an almost certain pre- 

 ventive of this disease, if previously well drained. 



A strong evidence in support of this theory, is 

 the fact, that this blight has never been known to 

 originate on the dry sandy loam of Long Island, not 

 even with heavy manuring ; the drought of midsummer 

 always ripening the shoots so completely, that the 

 leaves fall a month before frosts commence. 



If the character of the season and the continued 

 growth of the trees, indicated by fresh green leaves 

 and lengthening shoots, late in the fall, warn the cul- 

 tivator of danger from this disease, he should remove 

 the earth from the collar of the tree, down to the first 

 roots, and around for some distance. This exposure 

 will check the tendency of the roots to absorb more 

 nutriment, and of course arrest the growth. The same 

 result may be gained by root-pruning, whenever the 

 other method is not convenient, or proves insufficient. 



This disease, the most formidable that attacks the 

 Pear, is distinguished by certain peculiar signs : 



1. At the time of winter or spring pruning, by a 

 thick clammy sap flowing slowly from the wounds 

 — while a healthy tree exhibits a fresh, clean cut. 



2. By the appearance, late in spring, of dead patclies 

 of bark on the trunk and limbs. This, however, is 



