182 PEARS. 



between the bud and stem before the month of Au- 

 gust is passed. After the egg is hatUied the grub 

 eats its way through the cup into the hardest part of 

 the wood and passes through its chrysalis state before 

 the next summer. The late Professor Peck observes 

 that the mischievious effects of this minute insect, are 

 observed in June and July, and that the dead part of 

 the branches should be cut off and burnt without de- 

 lay, as the insects have not then left them. The 

 writer above referred to, says, that by steadily pur- 

 suing the system of cutting off the limbs many inches 

 below the apparent injury and burning them, the in- 

 sects have been extirpated from his estate. William 

 Prince, Esq. proprietor of Linnaean Botanick Garden, 

 on Long Island, says, the disease is caused by a stroke 

 of the sun, which extracts the sap from the uppermost 

 branches of the trees, or from such as are most expos- 

 ed to its influence with more rapidity than it can be 

 replaced ; or from powerful rays of the sun, heating 

 the bark to such a degree as to nullify the progress of 

 the sap. The only remedy, he says, is to immediate- 

 ly saw off the affected branches one or two feet be- 

 low where the blight extends, in which case, the tree 

 generally revives. A writer in the American Farm- 

 er, published at Baltimore, January 1st, 1821, advan- 

 ces the opinion with full confidence, that it is a warm 

 winter, especially a warm February, followed by a 

 cold March, that destroys our pear trees. It is the 

 order of nature, he observes, that a tree in severe cold 

 weather cannot exist but by a union of the bark with 

 the alburnum or sap wood. That if the latter part of 

 winter is warm, especially if the ground on which the 

 tree stands is rich and cultivated, the sap juice is set 

 afloat and in a short time, winter returns upon the 

 tree in the cold mouth of March ; the sap vessels are 

 instantly contracted, the juices are stagnated, and the 

 limb or tree sickens, and as heat is further applied, 



