XV111 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 



cided to market the pears. They are taken out of 

 the ice-house and kept in an ordinary fruit cellar for 

 four or five days, before sending them to market. 

 When the temperature is kept as stated, below 37 

 degrees, there is no difficulty in keeping the fruit in 

 perfectly sound condition, as long as it is best to do so. 



FIRE BLIGHT. 



The most disheartening feature of pear growing is 

 the destructive ravages of what is called " fire blight." 

 The age and vigor of the tree has no effect in warding 

 off this dangerous enemy. It comes and destroys 

 without warning; the first intimation the owner has, 

 is seeing the leaves suddenly turn brown, and the 

 next, that a branch, or a half-dozen branches, on the 

 same tree, are dead. Up to this time there is no 

 remedy against the disease. In my own orchard, the 

 blight has had its favorite sorts. The varieties that 

 have suffered most from blight are the " Glout Mor- 

 ceau," "Vicar of Winkfield," "Flemish Beauty," 

 "Beurre Diel," "Belle Lucrative," and "Swan's 

 Orange," and in the order named. There has been no 

 loss of trees or part of trees in my orchard of " Duch- 

 esse d'Angouleme," " Bartlett," " Beurre d'Anjou," 

 "Seckel," or "Doyenne Boussock," although I have 

 seen some of these attacked in other localities. Some 

 ten or twelve years ago I planted, and grafted on 

 healthy trees, the Japan Pears, seedlings of the Chi- 

 nese Sand Pears. These sorts have all the traits of 

 their parent, in vigor of growth and rank foliage, 

 which for brilliancy of color in the fall equals the Eed 

 Maple; they are, besides, prolific bearers. The fruit 



