41 G THE PEAR. 



The foregoing is the worst form of the disease, and it takes 

 place when the poisoned sap, stagnated under the bark in spots, 

 remains through the winter in a thick semi-fluid state, so as to 

 be capable of being taken up in the descending current of the 

 next summer. When, on the other hand, it collects in sufficient 

 quantity to freeze again, burst the sap vessels, and afterwards 

 dry out by the influence of the sun and wind, it leaves the patch- 

 es of dead bark which we have already described. As part of 

 the woody channels which convey the ascending sap probably 

 remain entire and uninjured, the tree or branch will perhaps 

 continue to grow the whole season and bear fruit, as if nothing 

 had happened to it, drying down to the shrivelled spots of bark 

 the next spring. The effect, in this case, is precisely that of 

 girdling only, and the branch or tree will die after a time, but 

 not suddenly. 



From what we have said, it is easy to infer that it would not 

 be difficult on the occurrence of such an autumn when sudden 

 congelation, takes place in unripened wood to predict a blight 

 season for the following summer. Such has several times been 

 done, and its fulfilment may be looked for, with certainty, in all 

 trees that had not previously ripened their wood.* 



So, also, it would and does naturally follow, that trees in a 

 damp, rich soil, are much more liable to the frozen-sap blight 

 than those upon a dryer soil. In a soil over moist or too rich, 



the old earth must be removed from the roots, and fresh soil put in its 

 place, and means taken to draw off the water from the roots. But if the 

 disease has made much progress on the trunk, the tree is lost." Traite 

 des Arbres Fruitiers, vol. 11, p. 100. 



* Since the above was written, we have had the pleasure of seeing a 

 highly interesting article by the Rev. H. "W. Beecher, of Indiana, one of 

 the most intelligent observers in the country. Mr. Beecher not only 

 agrees in the main with us, but he fortifies our opinion with a number of 

 additional facts of great value. We shall extract some of this testimony, 

 which is vouched for by Mr. B., and for the publication of which the cul- 

 tivators of pears owe him many thanks. 



"Mr. R. Ragan, of Putnam county, Ind., has for more than twelve 

 years, suspected that this disease originated in the fall previous to the 

 summer on which it declares itself. During the last winter, Mr. Ragan 

 predicted the blight, as will be remembered by some of his acquaintances 

 hi Wayne Co., and in his pear orchards he marked the trees that would 

 suffer, and pointed to the spot which would be the seat of the disease, and 

 his prognostications were strictly verified. Out of his orchard of 200 pear 

 trees, during the previous blight of 1832, only four escaped, and those had 

 been transplanted, and had, therefore, made little or no growth. 



" Mr. White, a nurseryman, near Mooresville, Ind., in an orchard of over 

 150 trees, had not a single case of blight in the year 1844, though all 

 around him its ravages were felt. What were the facts in this case? His 

 orchard is planted on a mould-like piece of ground, is high, of a sandy, 

 gravelly soil ; earlier by a week than nursery soils in this country ; and 

 in the summer of 1843, his trees grew through the summer, ripened and 

 shed their leaves early in the fell, and during the warm spell made no 

 second growth." 



