Feb. 



THE POMOLOGIST. 



21 



stale, the consequences are none the less 

 calamitous. 



Sometimes it. occurs too, that a steady wind 

 storm from the south-west, for forty-eight 

 hours or more, with clear weather and hot 

 sunshine, occasions almost a total loss of the 

 crop, on the sides of the trees from whcih the 

 storm approaches. One or more of these dis- 

 asters, occurs so often in exposed situations, 

 that it is a matter of no ordinary consequence 

 to find out a remedy if we can. 



Belts or groves of deciduous forest trees 

 around the orchard may do some good, 

 although as a general thinij when their pro- 

 tection is needed most, they have only their 

 naked and denuded branches with which to 

 ward off the dreadful storms. Have we not 

 a much more effectual remedy, which will be 

 fully justified too, even in point of economy, 

 if we compare the loss of the crops for an 

 indefinite number of years, with the trivial 

 outlay for protection by planting evergreens ? 

 These are a never failing shelter, not only 

 against the storms of spring and summer, but 

 the rigorous blasts of winter. I have no 

 question but in this country it will doubly 

 pay any one who sets out an orchard, to plant 

 a belt of large growing firs, spruces or other 

 evergreens around it. With proper treatment 

 these grow much faster than is generally 

 supposed. I can show quite a number of 

 specimens planted out in my grounds from 

 ten to twelve years, several of which are 

 from twenty-five to thirty feet high, and the 

 diameter of their branches from one to five 

 feet above the ground, not less than twelve 

 to fourteen feet, and some varieties so compact 

 that they are almost impenetrable to bird or 

 beast. The planting of these, including the 

 requisite care for the first few years, ( during 

 which they should not be neglected,) will re- 

 quire but little more labor than will be nec- 

 essary to transplant from the forests, and 

 grovp our deciduous trees, if we give such 

 treatment to the latter as will produce a 

 healthy and thrifty growth. 



I believe loo, that the cheapest evergpeens 

 for the object proposed, would be nursery 

 grown, and stocky trees about two feet in 

 height, and which have been at least twice 

 transplanted. One such specimen with the 

 compact top and fine fibrous roots produced 

 by the several transplantings, will be worth 

 more than ten of the same age taken from 

 the pine forests. For my own use, I vpould 

 rather pay twenty cents a piece for the for 

 mer than two cents for the latter; and who- 

 ever will try the experiment as I have done, 

 will come to the same conclusion, and that 

 too, after much loss and years of disappoint- 

 ment. At this rate let us see what it cost to 

 procure the trees for the protection of an or- 

 chard of ten acres, on all sides, supposing it to 

 be laid out in a square form. The distance 

 around it would be one hundred and sixty 

 rods. Two evergreens to the rod would be 

 quite BuiEcient, and in eight to ten years 

 would unite and form a solid mass six to 

 eight feet from the ground; and in fifteen 

 years would furnish an impenetrable wind 

 break fifteen to twenty feet high, as the 

 branches thicken from year to year, in some- 

 thing like a geometrical ratio. 



It would require three hundred and twenty 

 trees, which at twenty cents each, would 

 amount to sixty-four dollors, but add to this 

 eleven dollars supposed average cost of ship- 

 ping the trees from the nursery, and we have 

 the sura of seventy-five dollars for the number 

 required delivered at the orchard. 



There are few, however, who plant an 

 orchard of this size, and for any less quantity 

 of ground, the calculation is easily made for 

 the number of evergreens needed. Besides 

 the absolute utility of these evergreen belts, 

 or screens, there is nothing 1 can conceive of 

 which would add so much to the beauty of a 



farm, or if adopted generally, to the charms 

 of our prairie country, and prairie homes, 

 which are already so universally admired by 

 all persons visiting the State. 



Next to the evergreens for protection, I 

 would give the European larch a decided 

 preference, because it will afford a shelter 

 Irom the storms equal to any other deciduous 

 tree; it is very gi-aceful, equal in beauty 

 during spring, summer and fall, to any of the 

 pines or firs; the timber is reputed to be 

 equal in durability to the cedar, for posts or 

 any other such use, and it grows as fast as 

 the Silver-leafed or Soft Maple, which I 

 should place next on the list for beauty and 

 utility. 



I have a tree of this variety of Larch, 

 standing near my house, which I planted 

 there in the spring of 18.59, the body of which 

 measures at this time thirty-five inches in 

 circumference three feet above the ground, 

 and it is nearly forty feel high. They can 

 be procured when small, at a very reasonable 

 price. I think that in low.a, the cultivation 

 of this timber can not be urged too strongly, 

 and I hope this Society will give it that con 

 sideration, which the importance of the 

 subject demands. 



Although I may have already trepassed too 

 long upon your patience, I can not refrain 

 from adding a few remarks upon the cultiva- 

 tion of a fruit deservedly popular and desir- 

 able ; and yet in many portion! of our country 

 so fickle and precarious. I mean, of course, 

 the pear, which when well-grown and matured 

 has hardly a rival among the many attractive 

 and luscious fruits of the world. 



In some countries it is perfectly at [home, 

 subject to no vicissitudes or uncertainty of 

 production. But it Ik otherwise in most parts 

 of this continent, California and Oregon 

 being perhaps the only portions where this 

 fruit is subject to no disease or failure. Its 

 precariousness is almost unaccountable, when 

 we reflect upon its remarkable longevity and 

 productiveness in other lands, exposed to all 

 the severity of climate and season, incident 

 to our country, and even in more norihern 

 latitudes than any portion of the United 

 States, From these facts it would appear 

 that hard freezing alone, has but little to do 

 with pear blight, the great draw-back on pear 

 culture with us. 



The pear tree, in its wild state, is found in 

 England, and abundantly in France, as well 

 as other parts of Europe, not excepting Rus- 

 sia as far as the 51st North Latitude, and is 

 remarkable for growing well in .almost any 

 situation. Mr, Louden says that ''when the 

 "cultivated kinds are grown on their own 

 "roots, or grafted on a wild pear stock, they 

 "are much longer live than the apple," and " 

 "that in a dry soil it will exist tor centuries, 

 "and still keep its health, productiveness 

 "and vigor." 



To find out the cause of the malady which 

 makes it as a general rule, a short lived tree 

 with us, should, as I trust it will, enlist the 

 zealous and unremitting co-operative energies 

 of all fruit-growers in ihe country. Shall it 

 be said much longer that Yankee ingenuity 

 has been exhausted, without being enabled 

 to cultivate successfully a tree, which can 

 withstand the coldness in the heart of Russia, 

 and live to an extreme old age? 



It may be said that the failures result from 

 a want of adaptation, or rather, that the 

 pear being a native of a foreign country, 

 when brought to this, so great a distance 

 from its primitive and congenial abode, will 

 not adapt itself to the surrounding circum- 

 stances in its new home, by reason of some 

 law of nature, which she has never seen fit 

 to disclose. But I apprehend that ihi:i will 

 not do, for in portions of this continent, 

 ( California and Oregon previously alluded 



to.) the pear although transplanted directly 

 from a foreign soil, succeeds adm;,-vbly. 

 There is no portion of the globe where the 

 tree is more healihy, and where finer speci- 

 mens of tree and fruit are to be found. 



Some argue that " our hot suns in the 

 summer occasion the blight," but this will 

 no more compo-rt with the facts than the 

 previous theory, for our suns are surely no 

 hotter than those of California where blight 

 was never known. 



If we say our seasons are too dry, we are 

 confronted with Ihe same difficulty, for our 

 seasons are not near so dry as those of Cali- 

 fornia. Or, if we say that our seasons are 

 too wet, we are at once met and overcome 

 with the fact that in Oregon they have a 

 far greater amount of rain than in Iowa. 

 Indeed this is so proverbial, that some letter- 

 writer has facetiously said that "in Oregon 

 it rains about ihirlcen months in the year.' 



Without proceeding farther to enumerate, 

 I mvy safely say that no separate theory yet 

 promulgated on this subject, has resulted in 

 any settled convictions or conclusions, satis- 

 factory to the public mind; and yet I am 

 quiie confident that in the multitudinous 

 experiments which have been made by horti- 

 culturists throughout the country, some use- 

 ful and important practical lessons have been 

 suggested, and which, if we give them our 

 serious consideration, will lead to beneficial 

 results. 



We have the positive assertion of substan- 

 tial and reliable horticulturists, that they 

 have checked the blight, saved their trees, 

 and ate of the fruits for years, by watching 

 closely, and upon the first indications of the 

 malady, cutting off the branch or branches 

 affected, entirely below the part diseased; 

 but we must bear in mind that no one claims 

 any material benefit from amputation, after 

 the disease is fully developed, and has 

 therefore diffused its deadly poison through 

 the whole tree. This is the remedy recom- 

 mended by Mr. Thomas in his "American 

 Fruit Culturist." He remarks, however, that 

 " tfiis remedy cannot be effectual unless promptly 

 and Jearlessly applied." That "many cultivators 

 in/ear of mutilatiny their trees, do not cut low 

 enmigh, and leave the seeds af death remaining 

 in the tree." He also maintains, that "«i« 

 disease is contagious" and that ©very ©xeission, 

 of the limb, or parts taken off, ought to be 

 forthwith committed to the flames; and adds 

 that " two contiguous neightors had each a large 

 pear orchard; ohe oj them rfghcted all attention, 

 the otner spent ten minutes daily in the examina- 

 tion of nil his trees, and ia cultiug out Jreshly 

 diseased limbs. The Jormet lost viany entire 

 trees; the latter saved every one, and kept hit 

 orchard nearly cleat" 



It will not be denied that Mr. Thomas is 

 very good authority. 



My preference, however, is entirely in 

 favor of an antidote, if one can be found. 

 Leaving out of the question some experience 

 of my own, which I shall mention. I have 

 some high authority for saying that this mal- 

 ady can in a great measure be prevented. I 

 remember well that our great American po- 

 mologisi, the lamented A. J Dowing, while 

 conducting the "Horticulturist,' stated in 

 that paper that he " had preserved his pear 

 trees from blight by wrapping the main 

 trunk and large branches during the winter 

 months, wiih straw." This practice is upon 

 the supposition, not that the freezing alone 

 injures the tr'ee, thereby causing blight, but 

 upon the idea that it results from a combina- 

 tion of causes, which are principally a low 

 temperature, succeeded immediately by bright 

 sunshine; and (Ar's, from actual observation 

 and experiments for several years past, I 

 believe to be in substance, the true doctrine. 



About thirteen years ago, I planted on' 



