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CASSELL'S POPULAR GAKDENING. 



standing the volumes that have been written on the 

 cure of canker, it is really incurable when once tho- 

 roughly established. But prevention is better than 

 cure ; and canker may be, in fact has been, to a great 

 extent prevented by modern methods of culture. 

 It would also seem that some sorts of Pears have a 

 constitutional bias towards it, just as certain families 

 have towards the gout. Among such are the Golden 

 and Brown Bourres, Jargonelle, and others ; and these 

 are worse in certain districts than in others ; and 

 wherever such examples are noted, let these Pears be 

 wholly avoided in that particular locality, or tried 

 under special conditions, such as on south walls or in 

 erchard-houses. Other things must be avoided as 

 well as CEinkerously-disposed varieties. Among these 

 are stimulating, over-rich soils, severe pruning, ex- 

 cessive summer pinching, over-cropping and under- 

 cropping — in a word, all that promotes excessive 

 vigour, or, on the other hand, leads to exhaustion. 

 Excessive vigour, however, and surgical operations 

 on a wide scale to get rid of its results, have been 

 the great producing causes of canker. The four 

 chief causes, so far as known, of canker, are succu- 

 lent growths, heat, frost, and wounds. 



By avoiding the first, we prevent the other three 

 from coming into operation, for no heat in our 

 climate is able to scald severely the well-ripened 

 Pear- wood ; cold, or the absence of heat, is equally 

 powerless to destroy it ; while modern methods of 

 culture render big wounds impossible by the number 

 of little ones inflicted on the tree, and the rapidity 

 with which the latter heal. 



Surface or mound planting, root-pruning, double 

 grafting, working the Pear on the Quince, the use 

 of smaller trees, such as cordons, bushes, pyramids, 

 and the more limited horizontal and fan-shaped trees, 

 the augmentation of root-force, the abolition of severe 

 liacking and hashing under the absurd pretence of 

 pruning, more careful thinning of the fruit, thus 

 fitting the burden to the back that carries it — ^have 

 all assisted in the extinction of canker, and hence, 

 instead of giving any of the smears or dressings that 

 used to be given ad libitum as sure and certain cures, 

 the better advice to all who have cankered Pear-trees 

 is — root them out at once, and proceed to plant, treat, 

 and train as here directed ; and you shall have no 

 more of it. 



As to blight, and all the rest of the so-called dis- 

 cas3S, they seldom do much injury in this country, 

 but prove very destructive in America and other 

 countries where the extremes of temperature are 

 greater. But the means of treatment and methods 

 of culture that will safeguard Pears against canker 

 are exactly those that will also protect them from 

 blight, sun-strokes, or frost-bites. Neither should 

 Pears ever be planted in over-rich or over-wet 



soils, nor in the troughs of valleys, where spring 

 frosts are almost sure not only to blacken all the 

 fair prospect of Pears, but also to check the sap, and 

 so produce a full crop of blight. 



Insects. — The Pear-tree or Oyster Scale {Aspideo- 

 tus ostreeeformis) is by far the most troublesome and 

 destructive of all the insects that attack the Pear. 

 Small as it is, it not seldom attacks it with such force 

 as to give the whole of the bark of the stems and 

 branches a speckled appearance. It adheres so firmly 

 to the bark that the old remedies, a hard scrubbing- 

 brush or a blunt knife, were very inefficient. The 

 new and better cure for most of these pests is oil, 

 either animal, vegetable, or mineral. There is nothing 

 better than the first, only the smell is disagreeable 

 in the garden ; the best colza or sweet oil will do 

 instead, though hardly equally well. Two or three 

 brushings over with paraffin will also kill the scale, 

 but this lacks the emollient and soothing efiect of 

 the others on the bark and the branches of the tree. 



Among maggots, weevils, and caterpillars that 

 attack Pear-trees, several kinds are rather prevalent 

 and destructive. The cold-water cure, that is, a 

 stream of water from the garden engine, sent against 

 the tree with full force, is one of the most powerful 

 remedies against most of these pests. Lime and soot 

 water, a peck of each to twelve gallons, well stirred 

 up and left to settle, and only the clear water used ; 

 Gishurst compound, a pound to a gallon ; tobacco, 

 a quarter of a pound to a gallon ; quassia beer of the 

 same strength; dustings of Ary, fine snuff; quick- 

 lime, soot, sulphur — are some of the deadly mix- 

 tures, or nauseous removers of most of these pests. 

 Perhaps, next to the scale, the Pear-tree Chermes, 

 Fsylla pyri, as it is called, is the most troublesome. 

 This injures and disfigures alike the tree and its 

 fruit, both in its larva and perfect state. The effect 

 is similar to honey-dew, as the insects puncture the 

 bark, prey upon the juices of the tree, and produce 

 sticky exudations. The moment they are seen, or 

 even the slightest symptoms appear, they should 

 be hunted for and destroyed, or washed off with 

 strong soap-suds or weak sewage, tobacco, or clean 

 water. 



Pyralis luscana, or Red Bud Caterpillar, preys upon 

 the leaves chiefly. The butterfly of this troublesome 

 moth deposits its eggs in the heart of the current 

 year's buds about midsummer. These are hatched 

 early in the following spring, the caterpillar imme- 

 diately setting to work to cut out the heart of the 

 growing buds, and as it continues in the grub 

 state for more than a month it makes great havoc 

 among them. After this it spins a rather large 

 white cocoon, and these, being conspicuous, arc 

 easily found and destroyed. The moths and cater ■ 



