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NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



Sept. 1, Ir 



Virginia lUoiii, or the fciigUsli hawthoru will ever 

 mak;^ in our country durable division fences. — 

 They are both subject, to a great extent, to the 

 depredation of the apple borer, or some other ot 

 the wood eating insects, and are therefore unsafe. 

 Whether the Cockspur thorn is or will be attack- 

 ed by them wo know not. 



The best plant, so far as the experience of one 

 of our fellow cultivators, Ei^ekiel H. Derby, Esq. 

 will go, and he has tried it for many years, is in 

 favor of the buck thorn. It makes a close, beau- 

 tiful hedge, and is not subject to any disease or 

 the deprecations of any devourer, so tar as we yet 

 know. It is a Rhamnus. Species, Catharticus. 

 Mass. .ig. Repos. 



ON THE OLD AND FAMILIAR DISEASE 

 OF THE PEAR TREE IN SUMMER. 



Mr Fessende.n, — Although your suuunary and 

 decision upon this question were designed to close 

 the discussion, yet 1 presume it is not too late for 

 me to declare my conviction, that I may have been 

 mistaken. Such a weight of authority from all 

 quarters satisfies ray mind, (for it always yields to 

 public opinion,) that I was wrong. Vet I could 

 have wished, that gentlemen who differ from me 

 had not stated the rcasons^upon which their dis- 

 sent was founded, or had assigned more conclusive 

 ones. I could have wished ako, that some more 

 satisfactory solution than M. Duhamei.'s had been 

 given. For example, you, Mr Editor, and your 

 experienced correspondent from Brookline, found 

 your objections on tlie inadequacy of the cause (the 

 depredations of the Scolytus) to the effecl. In doing 

 this, you present, both of you, views of the physi- 

 ology of plants which are entirely new to me, and 

 which are not recogni/ed, I believe, by the physi- 

 ologists of Europe. You proceed upon the idea, 

 that the sap does not ascend in the hoart-wood, but 

 solely in the alburnum, (in common parlance called 

 the sap-wood) which led you into this, as I believe, 

 not warranted opinion. 



I know of no physiologist but Duhamel, vvlio 

 doubted that the vesicles of the heart wood con- 

 veyed the sap, in common with the alburnum, and 

 even he admitted, that these vessels conveyed the 

 sap in the spring, but it seems to be now settled by 

 more careful examination, that the sap passes thro' 

 the heart wood, or, as they express it, through all 

 the ligneous part of plants, though not so freely as 

 in the alburnum, iiow, then, is it possible for you 

 or your correspondent to decide, without trial, that 

 the entire destruction of the heart wood in mid- 

 summer would not produce death ? 



Again, your Brookline correspondent " Cultivat- 

 or,'' asks how the insect which moyhave occiision- 

 ed (for he must admit it by way of argument hy- 

 pothetically) the disease above the injury could 

 produce disease ifioic? I ask, with still greater 

 surp, ise, how it could y«i7 of producing such eftect.-' 

 Experience, theory, every day's observation lead 

 us to expect most extensive disease, in all the ves- 

 sels below, when in extreme heat and full growth, 

 the sap is stopped in its progress and offices. Ar- 

 rived at the point of disease, and finding the vessels 

 all dry and unfit for its passage to the leaves al- 

 ready decayed, unable to return to the root by the 

 principles which caused it to rise, (rupillary attrac- 

 tion and expansion from heat,) it must stagnate, 

 ferment, b'ecome acid, and then putrid, and this 

 will continue till it reaches its point of junction 

 with the main stem. There the evil would stop, if 

 too many limbs are not affected. 



Besides, if Dr Fiske's facts are correct, and I 

 have no doubt of them, the sap ascending in the 

 sound wood comes in contact witli the sap already 

 in a state of acidity, and is affected and fermented 

 by it. Cases of this sort occur every day under 

 our eyes. The cause of the sudden death of the 

 roots of plants cut in July and August very famil- 

 iar to all farmers, must arise from this rapid fer- 

 mentation. I could give a very strong example of 

 this process which occurred this season. 



But let us abandon my own supposition, so 

 strongly opposed by so many judicious men, and 

 examine M. Duhamel's theory, compared with 

 facts. M. Di'HAMEL is a justly respected physiol- 

 ogist, and the best practical cultivator of fruits 

 which the Horticultural art can boast. Still he 

 lived in the infancy of the science — and when he 

 states his theories, and gives the reasons for them, 

 we may all judge of their soundness. He attrib- 

 utes this strange disease of the pear tree to a 

 "corrupted state of tlie circulation," a genen 

 empirical expression, for his avowed ignorance of 

 the cause ; for in this age, we must demand a rea- j 

 t sonable cause for a destructive eflTect in a healthy 

 patient. To this theory, vague and loose as it is, 

 we have to object, its appearance in most cases on 

 a few limbs only. I say, in most cases, because it 

 appears from Duhamel, that it has been known 

 for more than a century, and to myself well known 

 for nearly 40 years, yet the cases of entire des- 

 truction compared with those of partial injury, 

 have not been more than one to ten. How then 

 can a corrupted state of the juices of a tree affect 

 from one to four or five limbs onhj ? Shall I be 

 told that it is a sort of paralysis which affects one 

 side only ? I shall admit this conclusion, when I 

 learn that trees, like animals, have nerves in pairs, 

 and can thus be partially diseased, except from 

 external causes. But M. Duuabiee assigns causes 

 for this disease, viz. stagnated water and too much 

 manure. 



To this I reply, that out of seventy pear trees, 

 the disease never attacked on my place but three, 

 two of which stand on a dry gravelly hill, and the 

 third is a natural stock, which grew in pure sand, 

 which has been used for mortar, (so free is it from 

 all loam) and not a shovelful of manure has ever 

 been applied to them. The last,a St Michael's pear, 

 having suffered much ten years since by this fire 

 blight, is now loaded with the fairest and finest 

 fruit. 



M. Duha.mel adds (to be sure) to his stagnated 

 water and superfluous manure, " or some other 

 causes," — a phrase which a lawyer would call a 

 " saving clause," but which is in effect nothing 

 less than an avowal of his entire ignorance of the 

 true cause. — Let us then abandon the Scolytus as 

 the cause , and confess, that we know nothing of 

 it, but let us as rational men, proceed to cut off, 

 not the diseased part alone, but all the limb to its 

 junction with the main stem, convinced that what- 

 ever may be the cause, the remedy is the proper 

 one — and let this be done within five minutes af- 

 ter we perceive the disease, and I am convinced 

 by trial, that we shall never be much troubled witli 

 it. J. LOWELL. 



Roxhury, August 30, 1896. 



The Drought appears to have caused the harvest 

 In fail entirely in a part of N. Carolina and Ea?;t 

 Tennessee. The productions of the earth were, 

 uf course, imported from other places, and wera 

 extremely dear. 



EXTRACTS FROM AN ADDRESS, 



Delivered before the Rhode Island Society for ^ 



Encouragement of Domestic Industry, by iVillw j, 



Hunter. — Continued from page 3t). 



The great objection to efforts and improvemeisi 

 of every kind, remains untouched. Do you mejj m 

 say the querulous alarmists, to press us to agrico fpi 

 tural exertions, at this time — when prices are loi 

 when our barns are bursting with plenty, and v 

 are enduring the ills of profusion and redundance 

 Happy people, who are able to appeal to the 

 present happiness as an argument againjt ai 

 amelioration of tlieir condition ! As a remedy { 

 this plethora, would you starve yourselves to deal 

 because with an imperfect and unthrifty ogrici 

 ture, you gather from an immense surface a si 

 ficiency for subsistence ? Will you go on tearii 

 that surface to pieces and drain your mot'ier ear 

 of every drop she yields without refreshment or t 

 cruiling? > 



I have avowed the opinion that our whole p|l 

 vious condition, colonial, revolutionary, or fetfe lais 

 ral, had placed us above the rules of ordinary p 

 litical economy, from causes extrinsic and extr 

 ordinary ; constituting us a splendid and hapi 

 exception to rules as undeviating and as exact, 

 rules of moral and political science can be. Rul 

 not producing, like mathematical principles, m 

 form results in every single application, but rath 

 like cliymistry, effecting an uniformity of its om 

 as an average of results through a course of contin 

 ed experiments and varied predicaments. T 

 adoption of the Federal Constitution, the prudei 

 almost the prophetic policy of Washington — t 

 profoundly sagacious financial system of Hamilt 

 — the wars that sprang out of the French revol 

 tion — the necessities and disturbances of oth 

 countries — the neutrality of our flag — the efflf 

 of foreign capital — gave an extension to our Coi 

 merce — an expansion to our enterprise — an uns- 

 countable and almost magical success to our i 

 fairs, disproportioned to effort, and transcend! 

 belief. This era of dazzling and periiaps delusi 

 prosperity is passed, and no sober statesman c^ 

 culates on its return. No one is impious enou, 

 to avow, that at the risk of the world's peace 

 wishes its return — God forbid that the tide of o 

 prosperity is only to spring from the effusion of h 

 man blood. To be sure,we hear of hopes and pr 

 dictions — of colonial emancipations and Europe, 

 conspiracies. Our accustomed emotions arc easi 

 revived, and like the faithful hound we start ino 

 sleep, pursue the game in our dreams ; we thii 

 we hear the voice of the master urging us to pii 

 suit, while he is only sleeping the sounder, ( 

 having regaled himself upon tlie banquet of tl 

 by-gone day. From habit we continue the bustl 

 though the business has ceased. Forbear too an* rit 

 ous expectations — allay your feverish liopes — ni| e 

 take not the signs of the times — they are btit 

 lowy commotions after the gale has passed— 5 

 lingering western corruscations after the sun 

 set. <l 



We must contemplate our situation as it is 

 exhibited by the serene and cloudless atmosphal 

 of universal peace. Our profits in all business 

 be merely peace profits — that is as absolute pri 

 compared witii the past, diminished. But as ri 

 tive and prospective profits, adequate and propi 

 tionite. There is nothing now in our situal 

 exempting us from the usual effect of the uncM 

 tradicted principles of political economy as illusi 



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