1872 The Western Poviologist and Gardener. 135 



SUPPLEMENT. 



Webster says Pippin is derived from pip, a spot on tike skin. Sliakspeare speaks of eat- 

 ing sour Pippins of last year. In both tliese cases nothing definite is given in regard 

 to the derivation of the name. 



PEAK BLIGHT.— Reply to Gardener's inontlily. 



BY THE COUKESrONDINO EDITOR. 



The editor of the Gardener's Monthly, in his issue for March, says: "The correspond- 

 ing editor of the Pomologist and Gardener offers objections to Mr. Meehan's theory 

 that fungi are the cause of fire bliglit in pear trees." The paragraph here referred to 

 implies that Mr. Meehan claims to be the originator of this fungus theory. We were not 

 aware when our article lo which he refers was written, that Mr. Meejian claimed to have 

 originated, or that he ever advocated th.s — in our judgment — untenable doctrine. In 

 replying to our objections to the fungus theory, the editor of the Gardener, says ; " lu 

 the East, fire blight attacks wood at any age, sometimes as much <is ten years old ; and 

 that it does attack trees in dry summers." Now these statements of his, if true, are only* 

 isolated cases, and cannot be admitted as valid in blight as an epidemic disea.se. We are 

 not speaking of exceptional cases of this disease, but of its wide-spread and devastating 

 eflfects over a large extent of country at the same time. It is in this last form that blight 

 becomes such a terror to planters, and it is to this form of the disease, that our remarks 

 upon it are intended to be applied. 



^gain, the editor of the Gardener says : " California and Italy may not have the little 

 pajacite there, or the climate may be unfavorable to its development." We hardly think 

 that this reason, if reason it can be called, will be considered as satisfactory. Mr. Meehan 

 would, in our judgment, have made a much better showing of his case if he had said that 

 California and Italy were not visited with those sudden and extreme changes of atmos- 

 pheric temperature, as are those countries where b ight so often and so fatally prevails. 

 But as a quietus to all of our objections to the fungus theory, he says : " Our fourth 

 argument is precisely the reason why it should he fungi. If the seeds of the paracite are 

 not there, all the circumstances, no matter how favorable to development, would make it 

 sprout." But, says he, " no theory Is needed about this matter. Any one who cares to 

 take the trouble may see the fungi operating by the aid of a good glass. That which, 

 certainly exists, must surely be possible." 



Now why the seed — if these are the means through which the injury is accomplished 



should under like circumstances, attach to one tree and not to another of the same kind 

 is something the fungus theory fails satisfactorily to account for, unless it is claimed that 

 these paracites have discriminating powers, which would be absurd. Now it would seem 

 that sporules or eggs would be as likely to attach to one tree as another of the same kind 

 and under the same circumstances. And yet we find in cases oi e^iidemic blight that there 

 is a marked difference. The disease inducing cause, whatever it may be, singles out cer- 

 tain varieties of the same species for its work of destruction. Among pear trees, for 

 instance, the Glout Morceau almost uniformlj' suffers most severely. Vicar of Winkfield 

 usually suffers next in degree. Now why this should be th^case, if fungi and not atmos- 

 pheric changes are the cause, is to our mind passing strange. Other remarkable facts in 

 regard to these paracites are, that they with singular unanimity make their attacks — if at 

 all — at or nearly the same time of the season, singling out as before remarked, the same 

 variety of trees, and over a wide extent of country. Now how these blind, inanimate 

 things, guided by neither reason nor instinct, ahould so uniformly produce the same dis- 

 ease, at the same time, on the same variety of trees, and over so great an extent of coun- 

 try as is generally visited by blight, is to our mind incomprehensible. These are facts 

 which we think our friends of the fungoid school will find hard to explain. Why is it, 

 we would again ask, that nur.serymen and tree pi inters, in the northern parts of Iowa, 

 Minnesota, Illinois and Wisconsin, are so anxious upon the subject of hardy varieties* 



