234: 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



into the house and examined Emil 

 Wolff's tables of analysis to see what 

 the mineral supply to the pear was 

 composed of, for I thought the land rich 

 with barn manure, and found it to be 

 54 per cent, of potash, 9 of soda, 5 of 

 magnesia, 8 of lime, 15 of phosphoric 

 acid, and 6 of sulphuric acid. 



" I called my man and dug away the 

 soil for six or eight feet around the tree 

 and down until the top roots were all 

 uncovered, and then took 100 pounds of 

 German salts (containing 15 pounds of 

 pure potash) mixed it with four or five 

 times its weight of earth and spread it 

 over the roots. I next took seventy-five 

 pounds superphosphate and mixed it 

 with earth and spread it on top of the 

 mixture with potash salts. Then I took 

 fifty pounds of lime mixed with earth 

 and spread on top of the potash and phos- 

 phate (these contain all the above min- 

 erals.) We then drew from the well 

 twenty or thirty pails of water and gave 

 the whole a thorough wetting, and in 

 one week's time I could see that the tree 

 was reviving and the blight apparently 

 never extended an inch beyond what it 

 was at the time of making the experi- 

 ment. The tree bore a small crop of 

 good pears in the centre of the top that 

 summer, but at the extremities of the 

 limbs they fell off". The next year it bore 

 a large and fine crop of pears. None fell 

 off" and no insects seemed to touch them. 

 The third year was the same, the crop 

 large, fine, and smooth ; and this, the 

 fourth year, the crop promises to be as 

 good as the two previous years. Now 

 this proves to my mind (so far as one ex- 

 periment can prove anything,) that what 

 we call 'pear blight' is simply starvation; 

 that the mineral supplies in the soil had 

 become exhausted and the tree was 

 dying for want of food. I fed it, and it 

 got well, and returned me many times 

 four-fold. And it proves a little more, 

 for what had been a semi-annual bearer 

 became an annual bearer, and I doubt 



much if most trees, if properly fed, would 

 not produce yearly crops of good fruit." 



PLANTS BY MAIL. 



The following directions are for the 

 guidance of those who receive plants by 

 mail : Unfold the packages carefully, 

 and put the moss-bound roots into a pan 

 of water quite warm to the hand, and let 

 the roots drink to their fill of it. It 

 will not hurt them to soak an hour in 

 the water, or until it becomes quite cold, 

 and if the leaves still look a little crisp 

 turn off" the cold water and add warm 

 water. Then take off" the moss carefully 

 and dip the roots into fine sand ; if you 

 only have white sea sand for scouring 

 purposes, wash it through two or three 

 waters, in a colander or sieve, and dry 

 it in the oven partly, then roll the roots 

 in it until they are coated with it. Plant 

 in good, rich compost, of one-third de- 

 composed manure, and two-thirds gar- 

 den soil, good and rich, and well mixed 

 together. Take small pots for small 

 plants. Three-inch pots are large enough 

 for all plants sent by mail. Put a small 

 bit of charcoal or broken pottery at the 

 bottom, and fill one-third with soil. 

 Press in the roots and fill up tightly 

 with the soil. Close planting — i. e., 

 settling the earth closely around the 

 roots — is needful for success in planting 

 in pots, as well as in the open border. 

 Set the plants in the shade for two or 

 three days, or into a well-prepared hot- 

 bed, and cover them with newspapers. 

 Water freely with a watering-pot — but 

 if kept in the house do not give 

 enough to sodden and decay them — and 

 in a week they will have taken root in 

 their new home and begun to grow, 

 and when they have entirely recovered 

 from a long journey they can be trans- 

 planted into the border. If they have 

 only come a short distance, however, 

 after a bath and a roll in the sand they 

 can be planted directly into the border, 



