ABOUT FRUITS, FLOWERS AND FARMING. 327 



FROST-BLIGHT. 



IT is a matter of great importance that all cultivators of 

 fruit unite in making observations on this subject, and that 

 it may be done with some unity of purpose. 



1. Let the examiner select trees upon which are seen 

 small water-shoots, that have evidently grown late in the 

 fall. Usually, a tuft of withered leaves will indicate them. 

 Examine also all the new wood which retains terminal 

 leaves or is winter-killed at the tips. 



2. The pith will be, in apples, an iron-rust color, and in 

 pears greenish black or pepper color ; the inner skin will be 

 discolored, and the wood of a greenish, waxy appearance. 

 On cutting down to the point where these shoots unite with 

 the branch or trunk, the diseased sap will be found to have 

 discolored the whole neighborhood. In many cases which 

 we have examined, half the trunk is affected. "VVe exam- 

 ined a bearing pear-tree, which to the eye has not one 

 sign of unhealthiness, but which, , on cutting, is found 

 to be affected throughout, and will, undoubtedly, die in 

 spring. 



3. Let a comparison be instituted between trees in differ- 

 ent circumstances. 



Is there any difference between slow-growing varieties 

 and those which grow rapidly ? 



Is there any difference between trees in cold, northern 

 aspects, whose sap, in autumn, would not be likely to be 

 excited, and those with southern aspects ? 



Is there a difference between trees upon a fat clay or 

 rank loam of any kind, and those upon a w r arm, dry, sandv 

 loam. It is supposed that any causes which produce a 

 coarse, watery, flabby tissue in a tree, predispose it to 

 injury by frost, and thus to the blight; and that the fine- 

 ness and firmness of texture of trees growing in a sand- 

 loam on a gravelly subsoil give them great power of endur- 

 ance. 



