34 



Preventive of the Blight in Pear Trees. 



Vol. II. 



would thrive best under the treatment I have 

 described. I know too, that there is a differ- 

 ence in soils; and that the same mode of 

 treatment may not suit all situations. But 

 those who have not succeeded in raising 

 pear trees, might try my method. My opin- 

 ion is, that the blight is produced by the ex- 

 cessive flow of sap, and that pruning and fal- 

 lowing produce that effect. If, however, 1 

 had pear trees growing on hard poor land, I 

 would fallow and manure ; preferrmg rather 

 to risk the blight, than let the tree die with 

 poverty ; but when I had sufficiently manured, 

 I would then cease fallowing. 



Henry N. Watkins. 



Poplar Grove, E. S. Maryland, April 20th, 1837. 



Dear Sir, — I observe by the newspapers, 

 that the Horticultural Society of Philadel- 

 phia are very anxious to detect the cause of 

 the blight in pear trees, and to ascertain a 

 remedy ; and for this purpose, they have 

 offered a reward to be adjudged three years 

 hence. 



I am a great lover of this delicious fruit, 

 and have mentioned to several of my friends 

 the confident belief, that I have detected the 

 cause of the blight; and seeing your adver- 

 tisement, I am induced to trouble you with a 

 vievv of it, that your Society may make ex- 

 periments to test that which, every succeed- 

 ing year since, I first formed the opinion, has 

 only tended to confirm. 



Various causes have been assigned for the 

 blight, by practical and scientific persons; 

 some have thought the old delicious French 

 varieties of virgoulese, jargonelle, arib, bon- 

 chretien, &c. &c., have lived out their day, 

 and are disposed to expire with the termina- 

 tion of the life of the parent stock; and gene- 

 rally, perhaps, this malady is ascribed to the 

 influence of the electric fluid. lam perfect- 

 ly satisfied, that premature death by blight is 

 not confined to older sorts ; some seedlings 

 with me have died as suddenly and as unex- 

 pectedly, sometimes a limb at a time, and 

 sometimes the entire tree. 



From many years experience and observa- 

 vation, lam satisfied that the cause of blight 

 and destruction in the pear and apple tree, is 

 almost always from what the French term 

 coup de sol, (stroke of the sun.) This stroke 

 of the sun occurs generally in the hottest 

 weather, and when the earth is dry. It pro- 

 ceeds from intense heat in the atmosphere, 

 when there is an absence of moisture for the 

 roots — sometimes from intense heat without 

 an absence of moisture. To obviate this, what 

 is the remedy 1 — select when you can a 

 moist, but not a wet soil, and allow your 

 pear trees to stand in a position where they 

 can be sheltered by tall dense forest trees, 



exactly on the south and west, or by some 

 other shelter of a house or hill. The hottest 

 part of the day is about 3 o'clock, when the 

 sun is in the south and west, and any mem- 

 ber of your Society may find without waiting 

 three years to ascertain the facts, that in 

 every orchard of pear or apple trees, open 

 and sloping to the west, there is more de- 

 struction in those trees than can be found in 

 any other exposure. I assert this tact, other 

 circumstances being equal, without the fear 

 of being found in error. I have made the 

 observation within the last twenty years, 

 some hundreds of times. 



It is my opinion that no perfect defence 

 can be made against the eflects of our hot 

 suns on apple and pear trees, unless a great 

 umbrella could be supplied, and periodically, 

 and properly, used for each tree. It may not 

 generally be known, that a pear tree besides 

 being healthy, will bear very well in a very 

 dense forest. A thicket sheltered by high 

 trees on the south and west, and a moist soil, 

 are in this climate their proper localities, ac- 

 cording to my opinion, founded on experience. 

 Your obedient servant, 



Thomas Emory. 



P. S. I will mention a fact which occurred 

 with me ten or fifteen years ago, and the tree 

 is still living. In the month of July or Au- 

 gust, when the earth was very dry, and the 

 weather intensely hot, I discovered one 

 evening that a pear tree, which stood near 

 the house, was evidently stricken with death. 

 The leaves wilted and hung, as those would 

 on a tree severed from the stump. 1 had be- 

 fore believed that excessive heat, and a want 

 of moisture, would produce this effect. The 

 tree was allowed to stand over untouched 

 till the next evening, when it was regarded 

 as being dead. I determined to experiment 

 on it, and had a large cart load of wet sea 

 weed hauled up and spread in every direc- 

 tion, 7 or 8 feet from the body of the tree, 

 and then threw on some forty or sixty gal- 

 lons of water. The tree as suddenly revived, 

 and is still living, being sheltered by some 

 tall lombardy poplars, since grown up, imme- 

 diately on the south and west. The leaves 

 next morning were filled with sap and dis- 

 tened. T. E. 



Destruction of Insects by Tobacco Water* 



In the process of preparing tabacco for use, 

 a liquid is expressed from it, wiiich is very 

 cheap, and highly destructive of animal life. 

 This mixed with from three to five parts of 

 water, is found by a writer in the Transactions 

 of the London Horticultural Society, to be an 

 effectual remedy for the aphis caterpillars, 

 and similar insects which infest fruit trees. 



