THE GENESEE FARMER. 



347 



THE PEAR TREE BLIGHT. 



In our " Walks and Talks in the Garden " for 

 3tober -we alluded to some facts which lead us 



believe that the disease in pear trees, known as 



e "fire Might" is caused by a fungus at the 



ots. 



The facts are these : "We have a pear orchard 



some seven hundred trees, principally dwarfs, 

 sveral of them have been planted ten years, 

 aey succeeded finely and bore good crops. In 

 e summer of 1860, nearly one hundred, of these 

 ees blighted. Their places were refilled with 

 sw trees the same autumn. In 1SG1, the blight 

 .rried otf eighty to ninety more trees, and the 

 tcancies were refilled as before. This year forty 

 • fifty more trees are blighted. 

 In the adjoining orchards of H. E. Hooker and 

 )Seph Hall, the blight has proved almost equally 

 sstructive. About twelve years ago, all these 

 aces were occupied with nursery trees, belonging 



the firm of Bissell & Hooker. The trees were 

 moved, and the land sold for private residences. 

 On digging around the roots of the blighted trees, 



all three of these orchards, we have found in 

 r ery case the soil filled with the old roots of the 

 rmer nursery trees, and these roots are covered 

 ith a fungus or mould. The soil is literally alive 

 ith them. A careful examination, too, showed 

 iat the same fungus was attached to the roots of 

 ie pear trees. We have found it not only on the 

 rger roots that were partially decayed, bnt also 

 1 the spongioles at the end of the fine delicate 

 >ots, that looked fresh and healthy. 



Mr. Westcott, of this city, who lias a nice pear 

 •chard of dwarf trees, has also suffered from the 

 ight; and on examining the roots of his trees, we 

 und the same fungus attached to the roots. The 

 nd was formerly occupied with peach trees. 



C. W. Seelye also states that his pear trees 

 [anted on ground previously occupied with nur- 

 sry stock, has suffered much from the blight, 

 bile his trees on new land are healthy. 



[Since the above was written we have examined 

 lese trees, and found the fungus on the old de- 

 lving roots in the soil.] 



These are the facts : 



Our idea is that the fungus growing on the old 

 ecaying roots in the soil, is taken up into the 

 irculation of the sap by the roots of the pear tree, 

 ud that, during the warm weather in summer, it 

 rows with great rapidity, decomposes the sap and 

 auses the death of the branches, and finally of 

 ie tree itself. 



In the last number of the London Gardeners' 

 Chronicle, (October 4,) there is an article from the 

 pen of the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, one of the ablest 

 cryptogamic botanists of Europe, in which he men- 

 tions facts which favor our hypothesis in regard to 

 the cause of the pear blight. He says : 



" A query from one of our correspondents, as to 

 mischief amongst his Apricot and Plum trees, in- 

 duces us once more to call attention to the disas- 

 trous effect of old roots remaining in the soil upon 

 new plantations. We have at this moment in our 

 own garden a curious instance, commencing with 

 the death of a fine Mountain Ash, whose roots 

 have spread the fungus poison first to two Lora- 

 bardy Poplars, and then to a Lilac tree between 

 them, and we have little doubt that other frees 

 and shrubs will soon follow, as we have not the 

 means of eradicating the evil. 



" In making new plantations, however, of fruit 

 trees in gardens where old trees have formerly 

 stood, it is an act of folly or recklessness to leave 

 the old roots in the ground. Without the most 

 careful trenching it is quite a lottery whether the 

 new trees are not arrested in their growth after a 

 few years, and just as they are ready to come into 

 full bearing their health often fails, and after a few 

 more hopeless seasons of repeated disappointment, 

 the new plantation follows in the wake of the old. 



" Our correspondent remarks : ' I have two 

 Apricot trees fifteen or twenty years old. They 

 flower well, but never set fruit. I have laid the 

 roots bare and find them covered with fungus. I 

 send you a part of the root. What must I do? 

 I have several Orleans Plums and Greengages in 

 the same condition, but have not examined their 

 roots.' 



"If the case admits of remedy, it can only be by 

 carefully cutting away every particle of the root 

 which is affected, and tracing out carefully the old 

 roots from whence it is derived. This treatment 

 was completely effectual at Kew in the case of a 

 Deodara which had been planted over an old 

 Cherry root, and if the evil is not too far advanced, 

 it may probably be successful in that of our corres- 

 pondent's Apricots. There is little doubt that 

 thtse as well as his Plums have succeeded old 

 trees, whose roots were never removed, for this is 

 the secret of trees so often failing on old walls, and 

 not any exhaustion of the soil. 



" The fungus evil is of far wider extent than 

 cultivators often imagine. In our gardens it not 

 only proves destructive to trees and shrubs, but to 

 Strawberry plants where the old stock has been 

 dug in. In this case we are convinced it is a 

 frequent cause of blight, and other maladies which 

 consist in a depressed state of vitality which does 

 not allow the plant to arrive at perfection. 



"Let the cultivator be very careful then never 

 to dig in anything which is sufficiently woody to 

 produce fungus spawn. Let him avoid leaf-mould 

 which has not entered into a thorough state of de- 

 composition, so that the component parts cannot 

 be recognized, and above all let him abhor the 

 bottoms of old faggot ricks, which are a very 

 frequent cause of mischief in the conservatory. 



" A friend lately consulted us as to the propriety 

 of digging in some spent bark into a clay border 



