22 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1867. 



the weight of his great uanie, may merit your notice. He states that the micro- 

 scope reveals the fact that the " cellular tissue of plants is composed of utri- 

 cules, of different forms, but attached to each other and continuous, having com- 

 munication with each other by invisible pores, and filled with a liquid com- 

 monly called sap.''^ This sap mjxy flow too freely, thus over-feeding ; or, if the 

 reverse is the case, starvation -ensues. In the event of a too free flow of the 

 vegetable blood, i. e. sap, the utricules are filled with a greater supply than 

 they can contain. This produces rupture and inward extravasation, and is a 

 hoemorhage which at once brings death to the plant, or part of the plant where 

 the accident happens. He adds : " Blight, as already remarked, cannot be 

 cured ; but it may be modified, or its further progress arrested. If we ex- 

 amine closely the affected trees, we (will !) find that many of their branches 

 are of a uniform thickness for a considerable length, and often thicker at the 

 upper end than at the base. This is owing to what, in gardener's language, is 

 known as hark-hound, and those are the places where Blight will, in most 

 cases, appear. The cellular tissue in those places is compressed and inade- 

 quate to contain and transmit the sap necessary to the normal functions of the 

 tree. Now, to prevent Blight in those places, give a longitudinal cut, so as to 

 divide the bark of the limb of the tree ; this at once remedies the evil, the 

 utricules are relieved of compression, and can perform their functions at ease." 

 Mr. Berkmans adds that he first published this theory in 18G0, and that his 

 practice subseqently, by its results, has convinced him of its correctness. It 

 only remains here, to be enforced upon your notice that he recommends Inci- 

 sion, as a method oi prevention, and not of cure. His exalted reputation as a 

 Pomologist should command attention for even his least suggestion ; while the 

 fatal nature of the disease, against which he would thus provide, exacts that 

 no mode should be neglected that holds out the slightest promise of staying 

 its ravi 



The influences that affect the vitality or fecundity of trees are, as throughout 

 the natural world, diversified and numerous. The tree, or shrub, which en- 

 dures without protection, or even shelter, the most vigorous winter in one 

 section of the Republic, suffers serious injury, if it is not utterly destroyed, in 

 a lower latitude ; and, as it would appear, a milder climate. The Cydonia 

 Japonica, that irradiates our gardens with its crimson splendor before the later 

 snows have melted, is scarcely half-hardy throughout Central and Western New 

 York. In a hedge of it, grown by your Secretary, the first of the kind in 

 Worcester, and even yet the sole perfect specimen ; which is forty feet in 

 length, and at least fifteen years of age, no trace of damage from frost was 

 ever detected ; although, once at least, within that period, the mercury indi- 

 cated the almost Arctic temperature of twenty-eight degrees below zero. The 

 conditions of culture are so various, in different localities, that no arbitrary 

 rule can be framed or applied. Yet the difficulty of establishing some fixed 

 law does not absolve us from the obligation of attempting as close an approxi- 

 mation to one as possible. To that end the experience of all should be con- 



