92 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



Julienne of the present day — and another universally 

 denominated the f^nnmier or Harvest pear. This 

 last I conlinue to cultivate, and consider it preferable 

 to the Mxideieine or the Bloodscood, though I have 

 never found it di^scrihcd i.i any work on fruits. 



"Few trees of recent [rrowtli were to be met with, 

 and it was then, as at present, a popular belief that 

 this fruit could not be cultivated with any pro.-pect 

 of succ('s.«. Of course not man}' efforts were made, 

 and they were illy directed. 'Iheir results seemed, in 

 most instances, to conlirm the correctness of popular 

 opinion ; yet occasionally a young tree would thrive 

 in spite of adverse circumstances. 



" In tiie year 1810 I first visited the northern parts 

 of Ohio, and found seedling Fear trees springing up 

 in most of the nurseries and orchards of the new set- 

 tlers. In my subseqiu^.nt visits in the year 1818, and 

 especially in 1823, 1 regretted to find that a large pro- 

 portion of those seedhngs were disappearing under 

 the attacks of a disease said to be "the fire blight."- 

 A few survived, and have continued healthy down to 

 the present periotl. 



"During the summer of 1824 I reared an extensive 

 nursery from the seed exclusively, and diffused the 

 trees extensively over Northern Ohio and Western 

 Pennsylvania. Like their predecessors, they soon 

 disappeared — ^leaving, however, au occasional survivor 

 behind. 



" I have recently had an opportunity to examine 

 the lofty and beautiful Pear trees on both margins 

 of the Detroit Iliver, in Michigan and Canada. These 

 trees were planted by the early French population, 

 and have survived from one to two centuries. Many 

 of them were loaded with fruit at the time of my visit. 



" The day has passed when horticulturists should, 

 like our soap-making mothers of old, impute such 

 diverse results to ' good and bad luck.' The causes 

 for the apparently opposite results of attempts at cul- 

 tivating this fruit are worthy of investigation. They 

 of course exist, and their discovery may result in 

 rendering future attempts successful beyond a con- 

 tingency. 



"The first query that naturally is presented is: 



" "Why was the first stock of Pear trees, reared in 

 Connecticut, Ohio and Michigan, thus thrifty and 

 healtliy ? 



" Two causes operated mainly in producing such an 

 effect— 



" 1st. The trees were reared exclusively from seed. 



" 2d. The superficial virgin soil, in most localities, 

 was rich in the accumulations from decaying vegeta- 

 ble and animal matters during thousands of years. 



" By reference to Professor Emmons' Analysis, pub- 

 lished in the Horticulturist, vol. II., page 300, it will 

 be seen that the ash of the sap-wood of the Pear tree 

 contains more than 27 per cent, of phosphate of lime, 

 22 of potash, and a number of other inorganic ele- 

 ments. 



"It must be recollected that vegetables require 

 their food as much as animals. If it be afforded in 

 too restricted quantities, they both will be stinted in 

 their growths, and predisposed to disease. Each must 

 also have food of appropriate qualities. An absence 

 of any one of the elements shown to exist in the ash 

 of the Pear will render the tree unhealthy, and proba- 

 bly occasion its death. 



" In almost everj' virgin soil the necessary food for 

 the Pear exists sufficient to insure a rapid and healthy 

 growth of one generation of trees. Cultivation of 

 other crops, as well as the demands of the Pear tree 

 itself, soon takes up most of those elements existing 

 in tlie superficial soils, especially the phosphate 

 of lime. 



"The second query is: 



" Why have more recent attempts at rearing this 

 tree been less successful than the first ? 



" Tv.'o causes may be assigned — 



" 1st. Suckers have been too commonly substituted 

 for seeds in propagating this species of fruit, since the 

 earliest generation of trees was produced in those 

 several States. Seedlings are generally healthy — 

 suckers never for any length of time. The circum- 

 stance of their springing from the roots is an evidence 

 of pre-existing disease. That disease is sure to be 

 inherited by every sucker. Their growth may be 

 rapid for a time, but is akin to the malignant de- 

 velopments which sometimes occur in the animal 

 frame, and is sure to end in premature disease and 

 death. 



" 2d. The second cause has created a more exten- 

 sive influence. I allude to the exhaustion or deficiency 

 of the necessary inorganic elements in the soil. A 

 knowledge of the hmited amounts in which they occur 

 in our ordinary soils, which have been injudiciously 

 cultivated for a number of years, will show to any 

 scientific horticulturist the impossibihty of rearing 

 upon them successfully the Pear tree. It is not a 

 chameleon, which can live and grow fabulously by 

 sipping wine. The young biped can. not draw its 

 mother's milk by sucking an empty bottle ; nor the 

 Pear imbibe a solution of phosphates and potash 

 from a soil made up exclusively of insoluble flint and 

 clay. In localities where these requisite elements are 

 furnished but in too limited amount, this tree will 

 exert its efforts mainly in producing blossom or fruit- 

 buds in excess, which of covirse will prove abortive 

 the season ensuing from a want of food, and very 

 little new wood will be formed. 



"On the other hand, if most of those elements 

 abound, but the main one — the phosphate of lime- 

 be absent, or in a restricted amount, the tree will often 

 make a vigorous effort at forming new wood ; the 

 leaves will be luxuriantly developed early in the sea- 

 son, and the shoots will rapidly elongate with a spongy 

 texture, till the period arrives for making a draft on 

 the soil to furnish tlie necessary amount of phosphates, 

 in order to mature the young and tender growers. 

 This draft usually occurs in the hot and sultry weather 

 of June or July, and is not duly honored. The result 

 is, the delicate tissues immediately die, a rapid chemi- 

 cal change occurs in them, and it is said the tree died 

 of the 'fire blight!' 



" This disease is specifically distinct from the frozen 

 sap blight, produced by the impression of frost, from 

 the canking blight, often occurring in suckers, and 

 from the insect Might, described in Dr. Harris' in- 

 valuable work on Insects Injurious to Vegetation, 

 but is the blight of innistrition. 



"The insect blight has occasionally appeai-ed in 

 Ohio, on our Pear, Apple, Medler, Quince and Moun- 

 tain Ash trees. 



" A third query still presents itself: 



