218 



GENESEE FARMER. 



Sept. 



HORTICULTURAL DEPARTMENT. 



CONDUCTED BY P. BARRY. 



The " Insect Blight " on trees is, in many 

 sections of the country, prevailing to an alarm- 

 ing and quite unusual extent. Up to the present 

 moment it has dealt out more destruction, this 

 season, than in the whole course of the last sev- 

 en years put together. We have watched the 

 manner and progress of its attack, and battled 

 with it from day to day for nearly two months 

 past, and yet feel utterly unable to say a word 

 more satisfactory in relation to it than what has 

 already been said in the Farmer and elsewhere. 



The apple, pear, quince, crab, and even the 

 walnut and hickory in the forest, have all suffer- 

 ed. We have seen several orchards that seemed 

 as though they had been scathed by lightning, 

 and some persons have attributed it to that cause. 

 We first noticed it here in the latter partof IVIay, 

 just when the apple was passing out of bloom, 

 and when the fruit were just formed. And now 

 (July 26,) it seems not to have abated a whit. — 

 It has followed up its attacks on some trees, par- 

 ticularly the pear, which is most susceptible, un- 

 til they are cut nearly to the ground, and not a 

 few are entirely killed. This is what is gener- 

 ally known in this section of the country as the 

 " Fire Blight," and there is no doubt on our 

 mind but that it is solely produced by some mi- 

 nute venomous insect, the sting of which is as 

 (»oisonous to the juices of the pear tree as the 

 bite of a rattle snake is to the human body. 



On its first appearance with us this season, the 

 fruit spurs on both apples and pears were first 

 affected. Suddenly we observed them turn black, 

 as if killed by a severe frost, and on cutting them 

 away we found the branches bearing the spurs to 

 be black and dying for several inches, in some 

 cases a foot, below the first point of attack. Im- 

 mediately afterwards the attack was began on 

 the extremeties of the young, newly formed 

 wood. If these were instantly cut away, perfect- 

 ly clean, below the affected part, its progress 

 was arrested ; but if not cut, it proceeds down the 

 branch into the old 'vood. In the apple, quince, 

 and crab it usually stops after it has proceeded a 

 foot or so below the first point affected ; but in 



the pear it seems to pass downward with great 

 rapidity, until the whole tree is dead — producing 

 as it goes along nearly all the symptoms and in- 

 dications attributed to the frozen sap Might, of 

 which much has been said at the west. The sap 

 becomes brown and thick, the bark cracks and 

 blackens, and in spots appears burnt and hard as 

 iron. 



We have just examined trees, to-day, dying 

 in this way, despite all efforts to save them. — 

 One limb after another was attacked and cut 

 away, until it finally reached the trunk, and then 

 all is lost : the destruction is complete. These 

 trees we know were not affected by frost. In 

 the month of June they were as healthy as trees 

 could be, standing on hard dry land, with welt 

 ripened firm wood. Among them were a Seckel, 

 a Pttsse Colmar, a Steven's Genesee, a Pound, 

 and a St. Ghislain. It is worthy of remark that 

 here, this plague has operated mainly on large 

 bearing trees. In close proximity to these trees 

 we have mentioned as seriously affected, stood 

 thousands of young nursery trees, pears, apples, 

 quinces, &c., from one to three months old, and 

 so far not one is affected, more or less. It is 

 further remarkable that it prevails in certain 

 sections of the country, in certain neighborhoods, 

 and in particular spots in the same orchard, to a 

 much greater extent than in others. We have 

 seen some orchards and gardens where not a tree 

 escaped — others at hand of these that escaped 

 entirely in certain sections. Syracuse, for in- 

 stance, it has been remarkably destructive in — 

 others it has not even appeared. The insect we 

 believe to be gregarious, like the locust, and that 

 it operates mainly in the night. 



We are led to this opinion from having noticed 

 one morning, quite early, part of a row of very 

 thrifty young quinces that had apparently just 

 been operated upon. The evening before, there 

 was not a symptom of any blight to be seen on 

 them, nor in a large 25 acre lot where they grew. 

 Now some 30 or 40, all standing in the same 

 row, were attacked at once; the ends of the 

 shoots were drooping, and the leaves and wood 

 of the affected ones were sprinkled with large 

 drops and globules, from the size of a pea to a 

 pin's head, of a whitish, thick, viscid fluid, which 

 we found soon dried up in the sun, to a small 

 brown globule. The affected branches, too, in 

 a few hours became black as though burnt, as is 

 usual with the blight. We have watched close- 

 ly, by day and night, for the insect, but have not, 

 so far, found the one which we believe commits 

 the mischief. We can not for a moment believe 

 that it is caused by the Scolytus Pyri spoken of 

 in Harris' "Treatise on Insects." We have had 

 branches examined by a powerful microscope 

 and no trace of an insect on the pith or interior 

 could be found. 



We have thus given a few facts as we have 

 found them, for the purpose of directing attention 



