DISEASES OF THE PEAR TREE. 203 



minutes daily in the examination of all his trees, and incut- 

 ting out freshly diseased limbs. The former lost many en- 

 tire trees ; the latter saved every one, and kept his orchard 

 nearly clear. 



Young trees in close rows have been attacked successively 

 till all perished; in other rows where the affected trees 

 were quickly removed, few of the remainder suffered. 



Washing the affected parts with a solution of potash and 

 sulphate of iron, (or copperas,^) has in some cases arrested 

 the disease, or destroyed the peculiar fermented odor which 

 attends its more malignant forms, and by which, perhaps, it 

 is sometimes spread. 



Among preventives, a good, rich, firm, and dry soil, and a 

 site favoring the early ripening of the wood, and adverse to 

 a late succulent growth, hold unimportant rank. The bark 

 of the pear is evidently of a very delicate structure, and it 

 becomes more able to resist changes and disease as the 

 growth is moderately vigorous, and healthy and matured. 



The attempt has been made to select those varieties least 

 liable to blight, but results vary so exceedingly, that nearly 

 all efforts have proved fruitless. But among those which 

 have escaped in the largest number of instances may be 

 named, first, the Seckel, which is scarcely ever destroyed 

 even at Cincinnati, and the White Doyenne. The Made- 

 leine and Passe Colmar appear to be more liable than the 

 majority of sorts. 



Dwarf pear trees are not usually so subject to blight as 

 others. 



Cracking of the fruit has been ahead}? 1 adverted to under 

 the head of soils and special manures, and the remedy point- 

 ed out. It usually appears in the form of a thick coating 

 of black rust, spreading over the surface, when partly grown, 

 causing the skin to crack, shrivel, and dry up. 



