Progress of Horticulture for 1844. 5 



pleasure of seeing Mr, Rivers' s plantation of root pruned trees 

 the last autumn, and shall have occasion to notice them more 

 particularly in the present volume. Unfortunately the last 

 season was very unfavorable for the trees, owing to the long 

 continued dry weather ; they had suffered considerably and 

 the foliage of several of them was quite yellow ; very few of 

 them produced any fruit the last season. Root pruning in 

 our climate will require more caution in its practice, and its 

 repetition should not be too often, or too close. 



As a new mode of transplanting, successfully practised by 

 our correspondent Capt. Lovett, (p. 161) we would call at- 

 tention to its merits, and also to his mode of autumn grafting, 

 with fruit bearing scions, to secure a crop the following 

 season. Under his practice we have seen many fine speci- 

 mens of fruit which were taken from scions inserted the pre- 

 ceding autumn. Its advantages are the speedy fruiting of a 

 new variety, in order to test its merits before planting out 

 one or more trees, and thus prevent the necessity of re-graft- 

 ing after they have come into bearing. 



The closing number of our last volume (X. p. 441,) con- 

 tained a most excellent article by the Rev. Mr. Beecher, on 

 the blight of the pear tree, which, we believe, has been read 

 with unusual interest. Mr. Beecher has searched every pub- 

 lication for information on the subject, and his opinion is en- 

 titled to much weight. It is certainly evident that the blight 

 of the West is not the blight of the New England States. 

 It has been satisfactorily shown by Mr. Lowell and Dr. 

 Harris that the blight, so termed, in this vicinity, is caused 

 by the attacks of the Scolytus pyri. As described by Mr. 

 Beecher, the blight of the West is a malignant disease which 

 is destroying a great many of the fruit orchards in that sec- 

 tion of country, and unless some remedy is discovered, v/ill 

 prevent the extensive cultivation of the pear. The Cincin- 

 nati Horticultural Society could not do a better service in the 

 West, than the offer of a liberal premium for the discovery of 

 a preventive of the blight. 



The proper ripening of pears is a subject which has recent- 

 ly attracted much attention : it is well known that this fruit 

 varies so much, according to the manner in which it is kept, 

 that some kinds can scarcely be recognized as the same va- 



