466 



HARDY FRUIT GARDEN. 



or too rich," Downing remarks, " the pear is 

 always liable to make late second growths, and 

 its wood will often be caught unripened by an 

 early winter. For this reason, this form of blight 

 is vastly more extensive and destructive in the 

 deep rich soils of the western states than in the 

 dryer and poorer soils of the east. And this 

 will always be the case in over-rich soils, unless 

 the ti'ees are planted on raised hillocks, or their 

 luxuriance checked by root-pruning." 



Although the frozen-sap blight occurs to a 

 much less extent in Britain, still its existence 

 may be traced in situations where the tenderer 

 pears are attempted to be cultivated, and espe- 

 cially so when a sudden and early winter succeeds 

 a damp and warm autumn, and less so when the 

 summer has been dry, and the growth of the 

 trees has been completed early. When the 

 trees continue to grow to a late period in the 

 autumn, which they often do in cold situations, 

 where they are induced to make a second 

 growth, and where, in consequence of being 

 planted in too deep and too rich a soil, vegeta- 

 tion is prolonged beyond its natural limits, 

 strong and watery shoots are produced ; and 

 when in this state, the pear-shoots in many 

 parts of Europe are as subject to this disease as 

 they are in America. The varieties of pears which 

 naturally ripen their wood early in the autumn 

 are rarely attacked by this disease, and hardy 

 ones, at least in Britain, are more certain to 

 escape than the finer or more delicate sorts. 



Insects. — The pear is attacked by most of the 

 insects that infest the apple tree. The Aphis 

 lanigera lllig. Eriosoma lanigera of more recent 

 entomologists, however, rarely attacks it. Seve- 

 ral of the insects we have described as destruc- 

 tive to the apple tree are more or less to be 

 found on the pear tree also. The following 

 may be regarded as the principal enemies almost 

 peculiar to the pear. 



The red-bud caterpillar, (Tortrix ocellana, 

 Petithina ocellana Fr., Pyralls luscana Fabr.,) 

 —the moth of which is given, fig. 196— is very 

 destructive to the buds of the pear, and is also 

 found on the 



apple. The Fig. 196. 



moth is thus 

 described by 

 Kollar : " A 

 white broad 

 transverse 

 band, stud- 

 ded with 

 grey spots, 

 extends 

 through the 

 middle of 

 the fore- 

 wings from 

 one edge to the other, and occupies more than one- 

 third part of their whole surface, thus distinguish- 

 ing this moth from every other. The other parts 

 of the fore wings are grey. This moth is found on 

 fruit trees towards the end of May. Its wings 

 are closed, and lie slanting on its body. It is 

 very timid, and can only be caught in cold rainy 

 weather. Throughout the month of June it lays 

 its eggs singly, sometimes on the fruit-buds, and 



RED-BHD CATEH PILLAR. 



Perfect Insect. 



sometimes on the leaf-buds only, where they 

 remain all winter, and only come to life the fol- 

 lowing spring. As soon as the sap is in mo- 

 tion, and the bud somewhat expanded, the little 

 caterpillar creeps out of its hiding-place, and 

 begins to gnaw the bud. A honey-drop is not 

 unfrequently seen on the bud, which, issuing 

 from the wound made by the insect, serves as a 

 sign to assure us that the fate of the bud is de- 

 cided, and that it will never expand farther. 

 The bud is prevented from growing, and from 

 attaining its full size, by the honey-drop, the 

 points of the calyx of the flower thus becoming 

 so closely glued together that their unfolding is 

 necessarily prevented ; and the caterpillar takes 

 advantage of the opportunity to devour one blos- 

 som after another, until it arrives at its full size. 

 Should the caterpillar come out rather later, 

 when the buds are already unfolded, some of 

 the blossoms are spared, and consequently some 

 of the fruit. As soon, however, as the caterpil- 

 lar finds a fruit near it, it immediately takes pos- 

 session, and feeds upon it. It attains its full size 

 in about four or five weeks ; it then spins itself 

 a white cocoon, in which it changes to a light- 

 brown pupa, and makes its appearance again in 

 May as a moth." Dusting the trees, just as the 

 buds are expanding, with finely-powdered hot 

 lime, we have found the most effectual remedy. 

 The operation should be performed two or three 

 times during the period of the buds' expanding, 

 and, if possible, in still weather. The finer 

 particles of the caustic lime, finding their way 

 into the heart of the buds, destroy the insect in 

 its most tender state, and just as it is hatched. 

 The moths are slothful, and seldom quit the 

 tree, so that their capture while on the wing is 

 seldom accomplished. 



The pear-weevil, Curculio (Anthonomus) pyri 

 of Kollar, is as destructive to the pear as the 

 Curculio pomorum is to the apple. In their 

 perfect state, both insects are so much alike 

 that they are scarcely distinguishable ; in their 

 larva state, on the contrary, they differ ex- 

 ceedingly both in their form and mode of liv- 

 ing. " While the apple-weevil," Kollar remarks, 

 " contents itself with only single blossoms for 

 the abode of its offspring, the pear- weevil attacks 

 all the blossoms, and even the blossom-buds and 

 leaf-buds together. If a pear tree is examined 

 at the time of blossoming, it will be seen that 

 many buds are brown at the points, as if affected 

 by the hoar-frost. If these buds are examined 

 closely, there will be found a dirty- white rugose 

 maggot, with a dark-brown head, which in time 

 is changed to a small weevil. It is scarcely 

 more than 3 lines long, brown, with a white 

 uneven band, almost in the middle of the ely- 

 tra, and two black shoulder-spots, therefore 

 perfectly like the apple-weevil. This insect 

 probably passes the winter under the bark, or 

 in the earth near the stem. Early in spring, 

 when the pear tree begins to bud forth, the 

 female lays her eggs in the buds, which causes 

 them to become brown by degrees, and to 

 fall off when the insect has attained its perfect 

 state." The principal remedies against this insect 

 are cutting off the buds that assume the brown 

 colour referred to above, and burning them, as 



