12 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1886. 



proves nothing: for althoagli there have been few thunder- 

 storms this season, and the Blight has scarcely troubled tlie 

 writer, the complaints of its ravages by his friends in this 

 vicinity are frequent and emphatic. Electric influence has been 

 suspected, at times; but it is a mere suspicion, with nothing 

 more to warrant it than the singular concurrence of thunder- 

 storms, with fresh attacks of Blight, very possibly fortuitous 

 after all. 



One fact within the individual observation of the writer, has 

 impressed him very forcibly. That is, — the marked susceptibility 

 of certain varieties to the blight ; and the especial significance 

 that, in every case, those varieties have been of excessive fe- 

 cundity. Take, for example, the Belle Lucrative, — from one 

 tree of which, in one season, he thinned out, by actual count, 

 two thousand specimens, allowing twice too many to remain, at 

 that. Consider the fatality to Clapp's Favorite; — another va- 

 riety whose prolificacy is equally remarkable. Rank growers 

 and heavy bearers: like other spendthrifts, they burn the can- 

 dle at both ends and meet a similar fate. Some analogy might 

 be traced to consumption in the human subject ; were it not for 

 the lightning-like rapidity wherewith the Pear-Blight makes its 

 onset. 



And again : the writer knows of no variety that he would 

 prize more highly than Glou Mor9cau, — were it secure from this 

 disease. Years since, — after cutting off pretty much all the 

 limbs in the vain effort to save a much prized tree he, in utter 

 despair, double-worked Josephine de Malines. There has been 

 no blight since. The original stock was Belle Lucrative. Sub- 

 sequently, — not willing to give up the Glou Mor9eau, he grafted 

 it upon the Lawrence. That tree has not blighted yet ; although 

 it is only fair to state that it has not borne much to date. In the 

 case of the Belle Lucrative, — it would almost seem to be a mat- 

 ter of heredity. Earle's Bergamot, upon whose local origin and 

 special excellence so much local hope and pride have been based, 

 blights sadly and threatens to pass out of existence. The pa- 

 rents of this variety were the Autumn Bergamot and — once 

 more, the Belle Lucrative 1 Doubtless care is not enough exer- 

 cised in the choice of the stock for grafting. Like putting new 



