450 DISEASES AND INSECTS. 



brown at early or mid summer. The cause is unknown 

 and the injury is not materially great. The remedy is in 

 cutting away at the first appearance. In this season, 1871, 

 it is more abundant than ever before. 



Apple Blight. This is a disease of serious character, 

 inasmuch as it invades and destroys many orchards. Like 

 the dreaded fire-blight of the pear, there seems no pre- 

 ventive. It attacks a whole branch or limb, and some- 

 times one quarter to one half of the top is destroyed, ere 

 to the common observer it is apparent. No remedy is 

 known except to cut away and destroy the memento of 

 one's losses. 



. Sitter Jtot. This disease, by some attributed to want 

 of appropriate nourishment to the tree, and by others to a 

 fungous growth, is as yet but little understood. High 

 culture, the application of lime to the soil, etc., are 

 recommended as remedies. 



JRust, or Fungus, Mildew, and Cracking. This disease is 

 more general in the pear than the apple, and it is more 

 apparent and destructive on some varieties than upon 

 others ; yet these varieties have not been so closely ob- 

 served and noted as to make it safe to enumerate them. 

 Suffice it that varieties longest in cultivation, most pro- 

 ductive, and in confined situations, arc most liable to it. 

 It appears to be a fungous growth, presenting, when 

 viewed by the microscope, a mossy, spongy character, 

 occupying the skin, so as to prevent the development of 

 its tissues, and results in checking the growth at that point, 

 thus creating a deformity. When the malady spreads, 

 as it sometimes does, over a half or more of the fruit, it 

 tends to a deeper nature, and causes the fruit to crack 

 open, and become corky and worthless. During a week 

 in the early part of June, this year (1871), this disease 

 appeared among pears in some localities to an alarming 

 extent, but soon ceased to spread. 



