246 



THE POMOLOGIST AND GARDENER. 



1871 



Neiv Discovery In Pear Blight. 



By a. S. Cummings, Galena, Ili,. 



fiD. PoMOLOGiST AND GARDENER :— In your late 

 issue I notice an article on Pear and Apple Blight, 

 in which reference is made to the manner in which 

 the poison works its way downward through the 

 bark, especially those of a gross, fleshy texture. I 

 experimented on a diseased Bartlett this season, as 

 follows : About the first of August blight attacked 

 the end of the central upright shoot of a bearing 

 tree, which I cut ofl" some feet below the lowest ap- 

 pearance of disease and arrested its progress so far 

 as I can judge, in that part of the tree, new and 

 vigorous shoots appearing at once below the point 

 of excision. 



About the middle of August it appeared on a side 

 limb just where the present season's growth com- 

 menced, and extended rapidly downward along the 

 old wood, leaving the new wood fresh and vigorous. 

 I immediately ringed the limb some feet below the 

 disease, taking out a ring of bark % of an inch 

 wide, aud awaited developements. I examined the 

 tree to-day, and find that the disease has spread to 

 the point where the bark was cut out, and has af- 

 fected more or less the old wood of all the branches 

 above the point of ringing, but below that point 

 the bark is still smooth and of a natural color, and 

 has no appearance of disease. 



I think from this experiment that the disease is 

 wholly in the bark, or at least is communicated 

 through it, and that ringing stops the disease as ef- 

 fectually as cutting ofl' the limb. 



I should like to hear the result of other experi- 

 ments in that line. 



Pear Blight— Trees In Grass. 



Bt J. P. Tallant, Burlikqton. 



Ed. State Register : — In your issue of the 28th 

 ult. you published au article on this subject, with 

 quotations from last winter's proceedings of the 

 State Horticultural Society, which require some 

 explanation, though you quote them correctly, as 

 they entirely fail to give the pith and substance of 

 what was said at that time. 



As you correctly state, tree blight and grape rot, 

 and, in fact, all kindred diseases, are entirely be- 

 yond the knowledge of the most careful and ob- 

 serving fruit growers. Nothing whatever in the 

 shape of facts has as yet been discovered, and every 

 man has his own theory, which the more it is en- 

 larged on, the less light we have. 



Apple tree blight lias thus far given Iowa fruit 

 growers in this vicinity very little trouble. A few 

 varieties are .subject to it and these had better not 

 be planted at all. There is a sort of leaf and new 

 growth scald which destroys the young twigs, and 

 gives inexperienced planters some uneasiness, but 



which does no damage whatever. This prevails all 

 over the country, and is not worth notice. As a 

 general rule the climate of Iowa is adapted in an 

 unu.sual degree to the successful growth of the 

 apple. 



Pear blight is a very diflerent thing. It attacks 

 trees of all ages and sizes, and its appearance is 

 so eratic and sudden as to be inexplicable by any 

 known rules of plant growth or destruction. I did 

 say, in the Horticultural meeting, that I cared noth- 

 ing about hunting for its origin or cause, so long as 

 we could get ahead of it, and I further stated that 

 the experience of the past seven years had induced 

 me to hope that at last its ravages had been avert- 

 ed. So long as a complaint may certainly be cured, 

 we need not worry about hunting up the Ci.use. 



I have been engaged in growing pears in Iowa 

 since 1847, with some intermission, and have lost 

 fifty times as many trees by blight as I have now 

 growing. In 1854, I was induced to cease culti- 

 vating them altogether to allow the grass to grow 

 close up to the tree, only keeping it cut every few 

 weeks, and to obviate the binding and repressive 

 effects of this treatment by putting a wheelliarrow 

 load of manure around each tree every autumn. 

 Since that date, eight years ago, I have never lost a 

 tree, and even saved some old wrecks which I had 

 given up as past cure, which are now the most 

 interesting specimens on the place. I have dwarf 

 pear trees that are twenty -four years old, and in 

 perfect health and vigor. One of these has borne 

 ssven bushels of fruit this summer, and all that I 

 would spare from it has sold at $2.50 per bushel, 

 the buyer coming after them. All my trees are 

 most vigorous and loaded with fruit. The success 

 of the present year has been that of the preceeding 

 seven. I do not give this treatment at all as a cure 

 for blight, for it may return again, but I do wish to 

 make it public, that others may try the same meth- 

 od, with, it is hoped, the same success. Even those 

 who do try and consider it a failure, ought not to 

 give it up, but try again. It is so simple and easy 

 of adoption as te be witein the reach of all. 



That general favorite and fine old Edglish pear, 

 Williams' Bon Chretien, or Bartlett, as we call it, 

 is the best pear we have, in my opinion, for 

 Iowa. It is a fall fruit, but I have recently found 

 that it is the very beast early summer pear. Some 

 of my trees were thinned when the fruit was not 

 halfgrown. It was thrown under the trees as 

 worthless, and after lying there .some weeks, ob- 

 serving their beautiful goUkn color, I examined 

 them, and found they were most excellent, having, 

 even at that early stage, the fine vinous flavor of 

 the mature fruit. Its fiiults are a tendency to too 

 early and overbearing, which soon exhausts and 

 destroys the tree. No dwarf tree under five years 

 old ought to be allowed to bear more than a half 



