410 PLAIN AND PLEASANT TALK 



3. Wherever orchards are already planted ; or where a 

 choice in soils cannot be had, the cultivator may know by 

 the last of August or September, whether a fall-growth is 

 to be expected. To prevent it, we suggest immediate root- 

 pruning. This will benefit the tree at any rate, and 

 will probably, by immediately restrainmg growth, prevent 

 blight. 



4. Whenever blight has occurred, we know of no remedy 

 but free and early cutting. In some cases it will remove 

 all diseased matter ; in some it will alleviate only ; but in 

 bad blight, there is neither in this, nor in anything else that 

 we are aware of, any remedy. 



There are two additional subjects, with which we shall 

 close this paper. 



1. This blight is not to be confounded with winter-kill- 

 ing. In the winter of either 1837 or 1838, in March a deep 

 snow fell (in the region of Indianapolis) and was immediately 

 followed by brilliant sun. Thousands of nursery-trees per- 

 ished in consequence, but without putting out leaves, or 

 lingering. It is a familiar fact to orchardists, that severe 

 cold, followed by warm suns, produce a bursting of the 

 bark along the trunk ; but usually at the surface of the 

 ground. 



2. We call the attention of cultivators to the disease of 

 the peach-tree, called " The Yellows." We have not spoken 

 of it as the same disease as the blight in the pear and the 

 apple, only because we did not wish to embarrass this sub- 

 ject by too many issues. We will only say, that it is the 

 opinion of the most intelligent cultivators among us, that 

 the yellows are nothing but the development of the blight 

 according to the peculiar habits of the peach-tree. We men- 

 tion it, that observation may be directed to the facts. 



