Pear and Apple Blight. 435 



cated, you can tell as well as I, what the ghost of a tree is 

 worth. 



I wish somebody would send me Harris's work on Insects ; 

 though rather old for a new science, I believe I would study 

 Entomology. I inquired for this book, but could not find it 

 in the Chicago bookstores. 



I wonder if insects are really more abundant of late years, 

 or are we noticing them more ? I think the latter most 

 likely. As our taste for good fruits improves, and our knowl- 

 edge of its excellence as food and medicine induces us to 

 plant largely, our interests and inclinations make us watch 

 carefully what we value highly, and we see more insects 

 because we look for them ; and yet the mischief they do is 

 incalculable. 



But I must stop. How many of you may I hope to meet 

 in " The aueen City of the West ?" Next month is the 

 time, 11th, 12th and 13th. Rather early, perhaps. It is to 

 be hoped that " the cholera," (which I must think is full 

 cousin to the "pear tree blight,") may have left ere that time. 

 And this reminds me that I have said never a word about 

 the duince and Apple blight, except what I told you in my 

 last. But in many places, especially east of the Illinois 

 river, I saw orchards where from one-quarter to one-half of 

 the fastest groicing trees were blighted in the top ; all the 

 new, and often some inches of the last year's wood, black 

 and dead, giving the tree and orchard a more deadly look, 

 than even the caterpillar. I think it is the same as " pear 

 blight," an atmospheric disease. I have here one apple, one 

 pear, and several quinces — the latter badly affected. — In 

 much haste, John A. Kinnicott, Northfield, {late the Grove,) 

 Cook Co. Ill, August 8, 1850. 



To Dr. E. Wight, Cor. Sec. Mass. Hort. Soc. 



[We are glad to welcome the Doctor's letters to our pages, 

 and trust he will continue them, as they are read with much 

 interest by many of the members of our society. No one in 

 the West is better able to impart information which will 

 interest Eastern Pomologists.J 



