No. 6. 



BII<yht in Pear Trees. 



191 



v/ith wood ashes, say 150 bushels per acre; 

 tlie rest with stable manure. As far as the 

 top-dressing- of manure, lime, or ashes, was 

 put, the worms were much thicker than 

 where there was not any thing put. This 

 was also noticed to be the case in some 

 neighbouring" fields. About the height of 

 them, they were so thick I thought I could 

 put my foot on at least one dozen at a time. 

 As their appearance and habits were the 

 same as those in 1806, so their time seemed 

 to be as limited as their predecessors; about 

 eleven days being the length of their course. 

 There were very few to be seen after that 

 period. They attacked more or less the 

 graiss fields in the neighbourhood where 

 there was any timothy, but none so bad as 

 the field and farm here described. 



This, I think, is as far as I can recollect, 

 a history of our long absent visitors; and 

 from my knowledge of them, I hope they 

 may be at least as long making their descent 

 or ascent, or whatever other course they 

 may take in getting round to us again, as 

 their predecessors have been, and a little 

 longer, for truly they are not welcome vis- 

 itors. Caspar Wistar. 



Salem, N. J., Twelfth mo. 20th, 1844. 



We feel much obliged to our worthy friend, C. W., 

 for Iiis account of the singular visitations of the worm 

 described above; and shall be gratified if any of the 

 readers of the Cabinet have it in their power, and 

 will please to throw further light on the subject through 

 our columns. On looking into the Essay on Insects 

 injurious to Field Crops, by the late Willis Gaylord, 

 published in the Transactions of the N. York State 

 Agricultaral Society, for 1S43, and which we mean to 

 transfer to the Cabinet as soon as we can find room 

 for it, no mention is made of any worm which seems 

 identical with the above. These things are exceed- 

 ingly curious, and every way worthy the attention 

 and observation of those who have it in their power 

 to bestow them. — Ed. 



From the Western Cultivator. 



Blight in Pear Trees. 



Extracted from a paper read before the In- 

 diana Horticultural Socieli/. 



The Indiana Horticultural Society, early 

 in the summer of 1844, appointed a com- 

 mittee to collect'and investigate facts on 

 the fire-blight. While serving on this com- 

 mittee, and inquiring in all the pear growing 

 regions, I learned that Reuben Reagan, of 

 Putnam county, Ind., was in possession of 

 much information, and supposed himself to 

 have discovered the cause of this evil; and 

 to him I am indebted for a first suggestion 

 of the cause. Mr. Reagan has for more 

 than twelve years past, suspected that this 



disease originated in the fall previous to the 

 summer on which it declares itself. During 

 the last winter Mr. Reagan predicted the 

 blight, as will be remembered by some of 

 his acquaintance in Wayne county; and in 

 his pear orchards he marked the trees that 

 would suffer and pointed to the spot which 

 would be the seat of the disease ; and his 

 prognostications were strictly verified. After 

 gathering from him all the information which 

 a limited time would allow, 1 obtained from 

 Aaron Alldredgc, of this place, a nurseryman 

 of great skill, and possessed of careful, cau- 

 tious habits of observation, much corrobora- 

 tive information ; and particularly a tabular 

 account of the blight for nine years past in 

 his nursery and orchard. 



The spring of 1843 opened early, but was 

 cold and wet, until the last of May. The sum- 

 mer was both dry and cool, and trees made 

 very little growth of new wood. Toward 

 autumn, however, the drought ceased, co- 

 pious rains saturated the ground, and warm 

 weather started all trees into vigorous, 

 though late, growth. At this time, while 

 we hoped for a long fall and late winter, on 

 the contrary we were surprised by an early 

 and sudden winter, and with unusual se- 

 verity at the very beginning. In this re- 

 gion much corn was ruined and more dam- 

 aged ; and hundreds of bushels of apples 

 were caught on the trees and spoiled ; one 

 cultivator alone losing. five hundred bushels. 

 Caught in this early winter, what was the 

 condition of fruit trees'? They were making 

 rapid growth, every part in a state of ex- 

 citement, the wood unripe, the passages of 

 ascent and descent impleted with sap. In 

 this condition, the fluids were suddenly 

 frozen ; the growth instantly checked ; and 

 the whole tree, from a state of great e.xcit- 

 ability, was, by one shock, rudely forced 

 into a state of rest. Warm suns, for a time, 

 followed severe nights. What would be the 

 effect of this freezing and sudden thawing 

 upon the fluids and their vessels'! I have 

 been able to find so little written upon vege- 

 table morbid anatomy — probably from the 

 want of access to books — that I can give 

 but an imperfect account of the derange- 

 ment produced upon the circulating fluids 

 by congelation. We cannot state the spe- 

 cific changes produced by cold upon the as- 

 cending sap, or on the cambium, nor upon 

 the elaborated descending current. There 

 is reason to suppose that the two latter only 

 sufi^er, and probably only the last. That 

 freezing and thavving decompose the co- 

 louring^matter of plants is known; J3ut what 

 other decomposition, if any, is efiected, I 

 know not. The effect of congelation upon 

 the descending sap of pear and apple trees, 



