80 TJte Western Pomologist and Gardener. 1872 



During two or three subsequent seasons I have had my melons, my squashes, my cucum- 

 bers and ray tomatoes scalded in the same way, by the intense heat of the sun's direct rays. 

 These vegetables were on an inclined plane, sloping on an angle of about 30° to the 

 south. The same kinds, protected by the sun's direct rays, were not so injured. If field 

 crops, garden fruits and culinary vegetables are thus killed by tlie intense heat of direct 

 sunshine, while in a growing, succulent and unripened condition, why may not the tender, 

 succulent and unripened twigs of fruit trees be destroyed in the same way ? We confess, 

 we are not able to see why not. In every instance here referred to, the vitality of the sap 

 or UooA of the plant was destroyed, and that, too, while in an unripened c6ndition. 

 Ripened plants, fruits and well matured wood are much more capable of withstanding 

 these intense conditions of heat. In the case of frozen sap (or frozen wood, if the latter is 

 preferred to the former), in late fall or early winter, blight is generally, I may say uni- 

 formly, found to affect the unripened wood, while the well ripened wood is as uniformly 

 found to escape. The very same result is found in vegetables, fruits and trees. It is pre- 

 sumed that no one will question the fact that the heat of the sun may be so intense as to 

 destroy growing vegetables — if this be true, then all we claim in regard to sun-scald blight 

 is established. Why is it that twig or insect blight, as it is sometimes called, is never found 

 to attack the twigs earlier than July or August ? Simply because the sun's rays have not 

 before this time become suflBcientl}' intense to destroy life — up to this time the hlne rays, 

 or those that give the green color to plants, predominate; after this time, till the approach 

 of autumn, the yellow or intense burning rays have the ascendency. It is during the 

 prevalence of these rays, that sun-scalds and sun-strokes most fatally prevail. 



WHY DOES THIS FORM OF BLIGHT AFFECT THE APPLE MORE THAN THE PEAR TREE? 



It may be asked why this form of blight affects the apple tree more frequently and to a 

 greater extent than it does the pear tree. We answer, simply because pear trees as a rule 

 ripen their wood earlier in the season (when it is ripened at all) than apple trees, coloring 

 and casting their leaves long before the apple. Another que.stion may here be asked, and 

 that is, if pear trees ripen their wood before the apple trees do, why is the blight of May 

 and June in the pear tree attributed to its unripened wood ? We reply, because the apple 

 tree, when it does ripen its wood, although later in the season, ripens it more perfectly, 

 hardening its wood more thoroughly as a consequence of its drooping habits, compared 

 with the pear tree. In conclusion, upon the subject of the tree blight, we would say that 

 we hold ourselves open to conviction, and whenever our friends who advocate the fungoid 

 or insect theories of this disease, will fortify their positions with meteorological, or anj- 

 other facts going to prove them right, we shall feel more disposed to give in adhesion to 

 their doctrines ; but until the facts are produced and shown to be inseparably connected 

 with the disease in question (as we feel we have shown our facts to be), we shall feel that 

 we are standing upon a sure foundation. Let us have facts as well as theories. One fact 

 may suggest a thousand theories, but a thousand theories can never produce one fact. 

 Facts are comparatively self-existent things. Theories are manufactured articles. Let us 

 liave the facts. 



TREATMENT NECESSARY TO BE GIVEN TO THE FRUIT. 



Having already spoken at some length of the pear tree, its habits and diseases, espe- 

 cially the blight, we come now, in conclusion, to speak of the treatment necessary to be 

 given to the fruit. This will depend very much upon surrounding circumstances, such as 

 the bearing habit of the tree, the amoui;t of wood made the previous season, the kind and 

 condition of the soil in which the tree stands, and the kind and amount of cultivation it 

 is to receive while it is growing and maturing its fruit. If it is the habit of the tree to 

 bear profusely, and its energies were greatly expended the previous season in making a 

 large amount of young wood, the fruit should be thinned, but sparsely. But if, on the 

 contrary, it made but little or no new wood for want of cultivation the preceding season, 

 or in consequence of the thinness of the soil, then the thinning should be heavy in keep- 

 ing with the circumstances, and the cultivation proposed to be given during the growing 

 aad maturing season just approaching. The thinning process should commence when the 



