No. 6. 



Blight in Pear Trees. 



193 



the branch to have blighted that spring-, al- 

 though the cause of death was seated 18 

 months before. When, in the other class of 

 cases, the diseased sap is less virulent in the 

 fall, but probably growing worse throiigh 

 the spring, a worse blight ensues, and a 

 more sudden mcrtality. 



I will mention some proofs of the truth of 

 this explanation. 



The two great blight years throughout 

 this region, 1832 and 1844, were preceded 

 by a summer and fall such as I have de- 

 scribed. In the autumns of both 1831 and 

 1843, the orchards were overtaken by a sud- 

 den freeze while in a fresh growing state; 

 and in both cases the consequence was ex- 

 cessive destruction the ensuing spring and 

 summer. 



In consequence of this diagnosis, it has 

 been found practicable to predict the blight 

 six months before its developement. The 

 statement of this fact, on paper, may seem 

 a small measure of proof; but it would weigh 

 much v.'ith any candid man to be told by an 

 experienced nurseryman, this is such a fall 

 as will make blight; to be taken during the 

 winter into the orchard and told, this tree 

 has been struck at the junction of these 

 branches; that tree is not at all affected; 

 this tree will die entirely the next season ; 

 this tree will go first on this side, &c., and 

 to find afterwards the prediction verified. 



This leads me to stale separately the 

 fact, that, after such a fall, blighted trees 

 may be ascertained during the process of 

 late winter or early spring pruning. 



In pruning before the sap begins to rise 

 freely, no sap should follow the knife in a 

 healthy tree. But in trees whicli have been 

 affected uith blight, a sticky, viscid sap ex 

 udes from the wound. 



Trees which ripen their wood and leaves 

 early, are seldom affected. This ought 

 to elicit careful observation; for, if found 

 true, it will be an important element in de 

 termining the value of varieties of the pear 

 in the middle and western States, where 

 the late and warm autumns render orchards 

 more liable to winter-blight than'N. E. or 

 chards. An Orange Bergamot, grafted upon 

 an apple stock, iiad about run out; it made 

 a sniall and feeble growth, and cast it: 

 leaves in the summer of 1843, long before 

 frost. It escaped the blight entirely; while 

 young trees, and of the same kind, I believe, 

 standing about it, and growing vigorously 

 till the freeze, perished the next season. I 

 have before me a list of more than fifty va- 

 rieties, growing in the orchard of Aaron 

 Alldredge, of this place, and their history 

 since 1836; and so far as it can be ascer- 

 tained, late growing varieties are the ones 



in every case subject to blight; and of those 

 which have always escaped, the most part 

 are known to ripen leaf and wood early. 



Wherever artificial causes have either 

 produced or prevented a growth so late as 

 to be overtaken by a freeze, blight has, re- 

 spectively, been ftU or avoided. Out of 

 200 pear trees, only four escaped in 1832, 

 in the orchard of Mr. Reagan. These four 

 had, the previous spring, been trunsplanled 

 and had made little or no growth during 

 summer or fall. If however, they had re- 

 covered themselves during the summer so 

 as to grow in the autumn, transplanting 

 would have had just the other efi'ect; as 

 was the case in a row of pear trees trans- 

 planted by Mr. Alldredge, in 1843. They 

 stood still through the summer and made 

 growth in the fill, Vvere frozen, and in 1844 

 maniiested severe blisht. Mr. Alldredge's 

 orchard afibrds another instructive fiict. 

 Having a row of the St. Michael pear — of 

 which any cultivator might have been proud 

 — standing close by his stable, he was ac- 

 customed, in the summer of 1843, to throw 

 out, now and then, manure about them, to 

 force their growth. Under this stimulus 

 they were making excessive growth, when 

 winter-struck. Of all his orchard, they suf- 

 fered the ensuing summer the most severely. 

 Of twenty-two trees, twelve were affected 

 by the blight, and eight entirely killed. Of 

 seventeen trees of the Bell pear, eleven suf- 

 fered, but none were killed. All in this re- 

 gion know the vigorous habit of this tree. 

 Of eight Crassane Bergamot — a late grower 

 — five were affected and two killed. In an 

 ^orchard of 325 trees of 79 varieties, one in 

 seven blighted, 2.5 were totally destroyed. 

 Although a minute observation was not 

 made on each tree, yet as a general fact, 

 those which suffered were trees of a full 

 habit and of a late growth. 



Mr. White, a nurseryman, near Ploores- 

 ville, Morgan county, la., in an orchard of 

 150 to 200 trees, had not a single case of 

 the blight in the year 1844; though all 

 around him its ravages were felt. What 

 were the facts in this case? His orchard is 

 planted on a mound-like piece of ground ; is 

 high, of a sandy, gravelly soil ; earlier by a 

 week, than nursery soils in this county; and 

 in the summer of 1843, his trees grew through 

 the simirner; wound up and shed tlieii leaves 

 early in the fall, and during the warm spell 

 made no second groiclh. The orchard, then, 

 that escaped, was one on such a soil as en- 

 sured an early growth, so that the winter 

 fell upon ripened wood. 



It may be objected that if the blight 

 began in the new and growing wood, it 

 would appear there; whereas the seat of the 



