THE CANADIAN H0RTI0ULTUBI8T. 



31 



PEARS AND BLIGHT. 

 I was very greatly delighted by 

 your recent reproduction of the article 

 on this subject from the " New York 

 Experiment Station." The popular 

 Professor is evidently doing some pro- 

 fitable work in this direction, and we 

 may learn useful lessons from it. The 

 cause and cure of pear blight is an old 

 question and as virulent now as ever, 

 and these observations tend to furnish 

 a key to a successful solution, and to the 

 proper treatment of the pear. This 

 subject is of very great interest to us 

 and with a climate so favorable to the 

 growth of the most excellent pears, 

 we should much like to be freed from 

 this pestilent blight. If pears of ac- 

 knowledged excellence cannot be satis- 

 factorily produced we must look to those 

 of lower grades of excellence but with 

 hardier and more robust nature in the 

 trees. A few days ago I received a 

 pamphlet from a fruit company in the 

 State of (xeorgia advocating the great 

 merits of the Le Conte and Kieffer pears 

 as the most promising fruit investment 

 in that state. They claim that these 

 trees are nearly and in some localities 

 < j uite blight proof. This led me to recall 

 ^ome remarks of a gentleman at one of 

 the Western New York Annual Hor- 

 ticultural meetings. He said "that the 

 direction of promise in pear growing 

 to-day lay in the lines of the Japan or 

 Chinese Sand jjears, and our hopes for 

 the future must come through these." 

 Tljis doctrine of courae was not nor is it 

 now very grateful, so used as we are to 

 looking to Belgium and France instead 

 of to Japan or Cliina for our delicious 

 pt^ars. Whether this teaching be correct 

 or not there is evidently souiething in 

 the very nature of the pear tree in its 

 relation to our condition and its treat- 

 ment here that requires the closest study 

 l)efore its prosperity can be assured in 

 all iK)sition8 and locations in Ontiirio. 

 But we maintain that this will never 



be the case as it is contraiy to our know- 

 ledge of the first principles of fruit grow- 

 ing to expect it. In the case of no fruit 

 do we find that every locality is equally 

 suited to its most complete production. 

 For these reasons we will unhesitatingly 

 resort for this purpose to the notion of 



SELECTION OF LOCATIONS 



for the pear as the direction of our 

 surest and best hopes. I am not. Sir, 

 going to lead you and your numerous 

 readers into every hole and corner of 

 Ontario to find these locations, but I 

 am at present simply intending to con- 

 fine my remarks on this subject to this 

 locality and district. As you may al- 

 ready know there is a fine promising 

 region of country here bordering the 

 long and winding but picturesque and 

 beautiful River Aux Sables, coming out 

 as it does from the county of Huron and 

 running through the county of Middle- 

 sex empties its volume of water into 

 Lake Huron, at a point in this county 

 called Port Franks. Along the upper 

 I course of this water ravine there arethou- 

 I sands of acres of rich deposit of strong 

 clay loamy soils, in undulating positions, 

 i thoroughly drained and rolling. These 

 ! very soils along this stream and through 

 its adjacent county, are th(^ best and 

 most promising location for the suc- 

 cessful growth of the pear that has 

 come under our observation. In this 

 region, as far as we know, there have 

 been no cases of pear blight in its 

 most virulent form with its depressing 

 results of death to the tree. The soil 

 throughout is a deep, heavy, clay loam, 

 resting at a distance of 10 to 20 feet 

 on the rock, and is in every direction 

 cut up and ravined by the powerful 

 force of small streamlets making their 

 way to the river, and the intersected 

 I high lands are in some cases mound like 

 I and hill shaped and in othei*s broad beau- 

 I tiful table lands. We would ask why 

 i not use a region like this of so much 



