Its cause, and a remedy for it. 445 



the blight-beetle in the limbs of the apple tree is a new 

 fact in natural history ; but it is easily acconnicd for, be- 

 cause this tree belongs not only to the same natural group, 

 but also to the same genus as the pear tree. It is not, 

 therefore, surprising, that both the pear and the apple tree 

 should occasionally be attacked by the same insect." [See 

 an article in the Massaclnisetts Plough/man, summer of 

 1843, quoted in Genesee Farmer^ Jnly, 1843.] 



This insect is said to eat through the alburnum, the hard 

 wood, and even a part of the pith, and to destroy the 

 branch by separation of part from part, as a saw would. 

 On these facts, which there is no room to question, we 

 make two remarks. 



1st. That the blight thus produced is limited, and proba- 

 bl}^ sectional or local. No account has met my eye which 

 leads me to suppose that any considerable injury has been 

 done by it. Mr. Manning, of Salem, Mass., in the second 

 edition of his Book of Fruits, states that he has never 

 " had any trees affected by it" — the blight. Yet his garden 

 and nursery has existed for twenty years, and contained 

 immense numbers of trees. 



2d. It is very plain that neither Mr. Lowell, originally, 

 nor Dr. Harris, nor any who describe the blight as caused 

 by the blight-beetle, had any notion of that disease which 

 passes by the same name in the middle and western States. 

 The blight of the Scaly ins jjyri is a mere girdling of 

 the branches, — a mechanical separation of parts; and no 

 mention is made of the most striking facts incident to the 

 great blight — the viscid unctuous sap ; the bursting of the 

 bark, through which it issues ; and its poisonous effects on 

 the young shoots upon which it drops. 



I do not doubt the insect-blight : but I am sure that it is 

 not onr blight. I feel very confident, also, that this blight, 

 which from its devastations may be called the great blight, 

 has been felt in New England, in connection with the in- 

 sect-blight, and confounded with it, and the effects of two 

 different causes happening to appear in conjunction, have 

 been attributed to one, and the least influential, cause. 

 The writer in Fessenden's American Gardener, (Mr. Low- 

 ell '?) says of the blight, "it is sometimes so rapid in its 

 progress, that in a few hours from its first appearance the 

 whole tree will appear to be mortally diseased." This is 

 not insect-blight ; for did the blight -beetle eat so suddenly 



