PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 133 



tW tap root of trees, which if cut off does not kill the tree, but causes it 

 to throw out a mass of fine new roots; and I think it is just so with corn — 

 that, like some trees, it ia not injured, but benefited by root praiiiii<^, and 

 causes it to produce more fruit. A crop that is neglected, or left to itself 

 in drouth, always suffers more than one that is frequently plowed. The 

 drier the earth, the more it should be stirred. 



Blight of Pear Trees. 



J. Franklin Spalding-, Nashua, N. H., desires to offer the Club the fol- 

 lowing information upon this question. He says: 



"Trees in this vicinity are subject to three distinct blights. 1, leaf; 2, 

 fire or insect; 3, girdle, ring or frozen sap blight. The first attacks trees 

 growing rapidly, causing the ends of shoots for an inch or two to blacken 

 and die. It is often the cause of much anxiety among inexperienced per- 

 sons who confound it with the insect or fire blight, which it resembles in 

 blackening of the leaves, but here the resemblance ceases; for in no in- 

 stance have I known it to injure a tree beyond checking the growth of 

 shoots." It may be readily known from the fire blight, as that kills a limb, 

 or limbs generally, although in one instance I knew the whole of a tree to 

 blacken in a single night, the insect working in the body about a foot 

 above the ground, yet generally a limb will be destroyed first, and at this 

 stage the knife will usually save the tree, if properly used. The limb 

 should be cut, not just to the point where the sap ceases to be colored, 

 but at least six inches below that; for ten chances to one, the sap is 

 poisoned beyond what is visible to the eye, and if allowed to remain, it 

 will kill the tree. In this section trees last year suffered severely from 

 ,the girdle-ring, or frozen sap blight. The first manifestation is a withering 

 of the leaves, for which there is apparently no cause; but close observation 

 reveals a ring of dead bark around the affected limb, hence the mame girdle 

 or ring blight; but why called frozen sap-bliglit, I know not, as I have 

 seen no conclusive proof that the ring of dead bark is caused by injury 

 received- from severe cold. If caused by cold, why does it first show itself 

 in a narrow ring two or three inches wide ? The knife should be used for 

 this as for the insect blight, but the cure will not be so certain. Having 

 seen the insect and ring-blight, the latter especially upon slow-growing 

 trees, I must take the liberty to contradict Mr. Carpenter's statement that 

 slow-growing- trees are never attacked by the common pear-blight, or else 

 we have an uncommon kind in this region. In a pear-yard of about 50 

 trees so grass and bark-bound that they had to struggle to exist, making 

 no perceptible growth last year, but one tree escaped the ring-blight." 



Mr. Win. S. Carpenter replied that all nurserymen concur in the opinion that 

 it is owing to a too rapid growth that pear trees are affected by the blight 

 similar to the one described by this writer. The Madeline is a very rapid 

 grower, and has an abundance of immature wood at the commencement of 

 winter, and is very apt to suffer from blight. The Seckel is a very slow 

 grower, and is never affected. 



Mr. John G. Bergen. — I do not think we have in this section the ring blight 

 described by Mr. Spalding. We have two kinds — one which shows early 

 in the spring before the leaves start on the ends of rapid growing-tree* 



