Notes and Gleanings. 231 



ritual of our societies. The two insects which damage us most at present, and 

 which threaten the future of " pear growing for profit " the most alarmingly, are 

 the curculio and codling moth. The larva of the curculio do not often, if ever, 

 mature in the pear ; but in neighborhoods where they abound they disfigure 

 the young pears sadly. With orchards of peaches and pears side by side, I have 

 found the latter much the most numerously stung early in the season, while the 

 infant fruits were about the size of peas. The effects of these punctures are not 

 outgrown by most varieties ; the development of the fruit is arrested at the point 

 of injury, or goes on slowly, forming a woody texture, and this scarred knotty 

 fruit is not worth half price in the fall. 



The Codling Moth. 



You are all familiar with the work of the codling moth in the apple, and I need 

 say nothing concerning this insect, only that it is quite as hard on the pears as 

 the apples, and so damaging to both that a dozen years more of neglect of meas- 

 ures for its extermination promise to leave our pear and apple orchards as 

 barren of eatable fruits as are those of many sections of New England and New 

 Jersey, whose proprietors enjoy their abundant supply of these necessities of the 

 table — when they buy them. 



Leaf Blight. 



Among diseases affecting pear trees, I think there is none so damaging as leaf 

 blight ; by which I do not mean the sudden blackening of the leaves which, we 

 so often see on pear seedlings, but that fall of the leaves in summer which is 

 caused by a slower growing fungus, and sometimes apparently by a premature 

 ripening of the leaves not connected with fungoid disease. This disease affects 

 most varieties in my neighborhood, where the ground is cultivated in the com- 

 mon way. There are a few of our best kinds quite exempt, however, under the 

 most trying circumstances. This fungus attacks only those leaves having a 

 deficient or weakened vitality. Our pear orchards generally stand in a soil which 

 is systematically kept naked during the entire year, and exposed as much as 

 possible to aU the severe changes of temperature. Such a soil becomes intensely 

 hot ever'y bright day in summer, and radiates heat rapidly at night — a condition 

 of things precisely contrary to ail the requirements of physiology and the teach- 

 ings of Nature. Most of our pear trees can't stand it. The debilitated leaves, 

 which are constantly exposed to the spores of this fungus, become unable to 

 resist it. This is pretty much all theory, of course ; but I know that those trees, 

 of varieties nx)St liable to summer defoliation in our neighborhood, which have 

 been kept in a close grass sod, or in clover, have held their leaves quite perfectly 

 through the summer. 



Wood Blight. 



This leaf blight lays the foundation for wood blight in many, if not in most, 

 cases. Those trees which shed their leaves in midsummer will generally put 

 out leaves again in a few weeks ; a new wood growth is commenced, many of the 

 perfected fruit buds will blossom ; and the freezes of early winter find the tree 



