414 IflE PEAR. 



originally suggested by Mr. Lowell, which we and many others 

 have pursued with entire success, when the other form of the 

 disease was not also present. The remedy consists, at the very 

 first indications of the existence of the enemy ^ in cutting off and 

 burning the diseased branch, a foot below the lowest mark of 

 discoloration. The insect is usually to be found at the bottom 

 of this blackened point, and it is very important that the 

 branches be remo\ ed early, as the Scolytus is now about emerg- 

 ing from his burrow, and will speedily escape us, to multiply his 

 mischief elsewhere. If there is much appearance of the insect 

 blight, the tree should be examined every noon, so long as there 

 are any indications of disease, and the amputated branches car- 

 ried at once to the fire. 



II. The frozen-sap blight. We give this term to the most 

 formidable phase of this disease that affects the pear tree. 

 Though it is, by ordinary observers, often confounded in its 

 eflfects, with the insect blight, yet it has strongly characteristic 

 marks, and is far more fatal in its effects. 



The symptoms of the frozen-sap hlight are the following : 

 First. The appearance, at the season of winter or spring prun- 

 ing, of a thick, clammy sap, of a sticky nature, which exudes 

 from the wounds made by the knife ; the ordinary cut showing 

 a clean and smooth surface. 



Second. The appearance, in the spring, on the bark of the 

 trunk or branches, often a considerable distance from the ex- 

 tremities, of black, shrivelled, dead, patches of bark. 



Third. In early summer months, the disease fully manifests 

 itself by the extremities shrivelling, turning black, and decay- 

 ing, as if suddenly killed. If these diseased parts are cut off, 

 the inner bark and heart-wood will be found dark and dis- 

 coloured some distance below where it is fresh and green out- 

 side. If the tree is slightly affected only, it may pass off with 

 the loss of a few branches, but if it has been seriously tainted, 

 the disease, if not arrested, may, sooner or later, be carried 

 through the whole system of the tree, which will gradually de- 

 cline, or entirely perish. 



To explain the nature of this disease, we must first premise 

 that, in every tree, there are two currents of sap carried on, 1st, 

 the upward current of sap, which rises through the outer wood, 

 (or alburnum^ to be digested by the leaves ; 2d, the downward 

 current, which descends through the inner bark, (or liher,) 

 forming a deposit of new wood on its passage down.* 



Now let us suppose, anterior to a blight season, a very sudden 

 and early winter, succeeding a damp and warm autumn.f The 



* Being distributed towards the centre of the stem by the meduUaty 

 rays wlxich communicate from the inner bark to the pith. 



f Which always happens previously to a summer when the blight is 



