448 The Blight in the Pear Tree ; 



county, Iiid., was in possession of much information, and 

 supposed himself to have discovered the cause of this evil ; 

 and to him I am indebted for a first suggestion of the cause. 

 Mr. Reagan has for more than twelve years past suspected 

 that this disease originated in the fall previous to the sum- 

 mer on which it declares itself During the last winter 

 Mr. Reagan predicted the blight, as will be remembered by 

 some of his acquaintance in Wayne county, 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. After gath- 

 ering from him all the information which a limited time 

 Avould allow, I obtained from Aaron Alldredge, of this 

 place, a nursery-man of great skill, and possessed of care- 

 ful, cautious habits of observation, much corroborative in- 

 formation ; and particularly a tabular account of the blight 

 for nine years past in liis nursery and orchard. 



The spring of 1843 opened early, but cold and wet, until 

 the last of May. The summer was both dry and cool, and 

 trees made very little growth of new wood. Toward au- 

 tumn, however, the drought ceased, copious rains saturated 

 the ground, and warm weather started all trees into vigor- 

 ous, though late, growth. At this time, while we hoped 

 for a long fall and a late winter, on the contrary we were 

 surprised by an early and sudden winter, and with unusual 

 severity at the very beginning. In this region, much corn 

 was ruined and more damaged; and hundreds of bushels 

 of apples were caught on the trees and spoiled, — one culti- 

 vator alone losing five hundred bushels. Caught in this 

 early winter, what was the condition of fruit trees ? They 

 were making rapid grov/th, every part in a state of excite- 

 ment, the wood unripe, the passages of ascent and descent 

 impleted with sap. In this condition, the fluids were sud- 

 denly frozen, — the growth instantly checked ; and the 

 whole tree, from a state of great excitability, was, by one 

 shock, rudely forced into a state of rest. Warm suns, for 

 a time, followed severe nights. What would be the eflect 

 of this freezing and sudden thawing upon the fluids and 

 their vessels'? I have been able to find so little written 

 upon vegetable morbid anatomy, (probably from the want 

 of access to books,) that I can give but an imperfect ac- 

 count of the derangement produced upon the circulating 

 fluids by congelation. We cannot state the specific changes 



