THE GENESEE FARMER. 



223 



ought to cany them to their destiuatiou. What sis- 

 uities fifty cents or a doUar per huii 'red in the cost of 

 securing treo.; for cari-iago, compared with rauaing 

 the risk of losing them or having them so damaged 

 that they will not recover for yoar.-s. livery man who 

 orders trees should say emphitically, "Pack my 

 trees in the best maimer;" and nurserymen should be 

 held responsible for this, as much, at least, as for the 

 quality of the trees. 



Having now briefly called attention to what we 

 consider a prevailing defect in the growth of young 

 trees, that unfits thena for safe and successful removal, 

 and the necessity of care in packing for transporta- 

 tion, we shall hereafter take occasion to say some- 

 thing on planting and subsequent management. — Hor- 

 ticullurist. 



[From tlie Maine Farmer.] 



SINGULAR DISEASE IN AN ORCHARD. 



Mr. Editor: — I wish that you or some of your 

 co-respondents, would have the goodness to inform 

 me and some of my neighbors, what is the matter 

 with most of our Apple trees. I will tell you the 

 symptoms in as plain and as faithful a manner as I 

 can, and ask you as a good doctor in such cases to 

 prescribe a remedy for a grievous disease. My or- 

 chard contains some four hundred trees, of ages va- 

 rying i'rora ten to twenty years, and a few old settlers 

 of a former generation, some sixty or seventy years 

 old. The soil is a gravelly loam, with a hard-pan un- 

 der it, somewhat drj^, and is what we consider to be 

 first rate for general agricultural purposes. So far 

 as growth is concerned, my trees for the most part 

 flourish well. They look most beautiful in the fore 

 part of every summer, until the apples become about 

 !i:' size of robin's eggs, or large potato balls, when a 

 k 1., of black mold or blight, or whatever you may 

 ca eizes upon them and spreads ov( r them, most 



(■ '■■ ■ u .hy putting a stop to the growth wherever it 

 ]ti tvaiis. One side of an apple touched with tliis, will 

 be black and scaljliy, and open, with two or three 

 large cracks, while the other side of the same apple 

 will continue to grow and be fair and handsome. In 

 some instances I have known the entire fruit of a 

 tree to be covereil with this black malady, the fruit 

 of all sizes, from that of musket balls to that of hen's 

 eggs, with the exception of perhaps two or three near 

 the enils of limbs, which were stretched away off re- 

 mote from the body of the tree; these would be large, 

 fair and handsome, showing what the others would 

 have Iteen if they could have had their own way 

 about it. For the last seven or eight years I have 

 had apples enough in number, if unmolested by this 

 disease, to amount to some 600 bushels to the year, 

 on an average, of good ones, and instead of that we 

 get about l.JO bushels, and two-thirds of them hard- 

 ly fit for the hogs to eat. Sometimes I have seen 

 something of this on the leaves of trees, about the 

 time when it attacks the fruit. Be the trees old or 

 young, >eedlings, as you call them, or engrafted, large 

 or small, growing vigorously or not, whether the land 

 on which they grow be rich or poor, it matters not, 

 the disease shows no regard to any of these things. 

 I have sometimes had the ground in tillage, but it is 

 all the same thing to the fruit It may be weU to 



state that I have taken great pains to keep my trees 

 in good condition, but it is close by the sii-e of an 

 older orchard, which is allowed for the most p u't to 

 take ca,re of itself, and yet I believe, ihat, in relation 

 to this disease of which I have been writing mine 

 fares the worst. And now, my dear sir, if you will 

 let me know what this disease is, or rather, what will 

 cure it, I should be willing the fiist oppoi tuuity to 

 give yoa my vote — no, that will not do, our laws, I 

 believe, do not allow us to vote for any man from 

 whom we have ever received, or have any prospect of 

 ever receiving, any \aluable consideration. At any 

 rate, I might well afford to give any man my (mtire 

 crop of apples for a number of years, who will pre- 

 scribe some practical method of removing the curee 

 which afflicts them. I have consultel some authors 

 and made a great many ini|uiries in vain. I have 

 been strongly tempted to do in this case what physi- 

 cians are sometimes a''cused of doing, when a disorder 

 in animal or vegetable life cannot otherwise be cured, 

 the death of the patient is always sure to do it. 



We ignorant and illiterate country clowns, of whom 

 I claim to be oue, I suppose sometimes sorely tax 

 your patience by our silly inquiries, and you have my 

 consent to throw this paper into the fire, if you will 

 only give us, through the medium of your paper, the 

 information called for. Hampden. 



Here is a disease entirely new to us, and -we caJl 

 upon all the orchard doctors in Christendom to lend 

 oiu' friend a helping hand in preventing or curing it. 

 VVe can ^vess but two causes for it. Either the sap 

 vessels of the tree become charged with some delete- 

 rious matter which it takes from the soil — or it is oc^ 

 casioned liy some raildev/ or fungus prevalent in that 

 locality, the seeds of which floating in the air fasten 

 on the apple and cause the mischief. 



'I'liis latter supposition is corroborated by the fact 

 of one-half the apple being covered, and the other 

 not, and some apples that hung out in the sun and 

 breeze escaping. 



Will some of our readers who are conversant with 

 diseases of the orchard, give us their ideas upon the 

 subject ? — Ed. Maine Farmer. 



THE BLACK AND GREEN TEAS OF 

 COMMEUCE. 



It was a remarkable fact that the subject of 

 the difference between the black and green teas has 

 been, until recently, a matter of great uncertainty. 

 The Jesuits, who had penetrated into China, and Mr. 

 Pioou, were of opinion that both the black and green 

 teas were produced from the same plant ; wdiile Mr. 

 Reeve believed that they were manufactured from 

 two disrinct plants. Now, as regarded himself, he 

 (Dr. Royle) had adopted the view that the best kinds 

 of black and green tea w-ere made from different 

 plants ; and examination of tea samples seemed to 

 confirm that view, but a repetition of the experiment 

 had not done so. Mr. Fortune, subsequent to the 

 China war, having been sent out to China by the 

 Horticultural Society of England, made inquiries on 

 the subject. He there found the Thea bohea in tho 

 southern parts of China employed for making black 

 tea; and in proceeding as far north as Shai^ghae, 



