416 
THE I’EAR. 
The foregoing; is the worst form of the disease, and it takes 
place when the poisoned sap, stagnated under the bark in spots, 
remains through the winter in a thick semi-fluid state, so as to 
be capable of being taken up in the descending current of the 
next summer. When, on the other hand, it collects in sufficient 
quantity to freeze again, burst the sap vessels, and afterwards 
dry out by the influence of the sun and wind, it leaves the patch- 
es of dead bark which we have already described. As part of 
the woody channels which convey the ascending sap probably 
remain entire and uninjured, the tree or branch will perhaps 
continue to grow the whole season and bear fruit, as if nothing 
had happened to it, drying down to the shrivelled spots of bark 
the next spring. The effect, in this case, is precisely that o* 
girdling only, and the branch or tree will die after a time, but 
not suddenly. 
From what we have said, it is easy to infer that it would not 
be difficult on the occurrence of such an autumn — when sudden 
congelation takes place in unripened wood — to predict a blight 
season for the following summer. Such has several times been 
done, and its fulfilment may be looked for, with certainty, in all 
trees that had not previously ripened their wood.* 
So, also, it would and does naturally follow, that trees in a 
damp, rich soil, are much more liable to the frozen-sap blight 
than those upon a dryer soil. In a soil over moist or too rich, 
the old earth must be removed from the roots, and fresh soil put in its 
place, and means taken to draw off the water from the roots. But if the 
disease has made much progress on the trunk, the tree is lost.” Traite 
des Arbres Fruitiers, vol. 11, p. 100. 
* Since the above was written, we have had the pleasure of seeing a 
highly interesting article by the Rev. H. W. Beecher, of Indiana, one of 
the most intelligent observers in the country. Mr. Beecher not only 
agrees in the main with us, but he fortifies our opinion with a number of 
additional facts of great value. We shall extract some of this testimony, 
which is vouched for by Mr. B., and for the publication of which the cul- 
tivators of pears owe him many thanks. 
“ Mr. R. Ragan, of Putnam county, Ind., has for more than twelve 
years, suspected that this disease originated in the fall previous to the 
summer on which it declares itself. During the last winter, Mr. Ragan 
predicted the blight, as will be remembered by some of his acquaintances 
in Wayne Co., and in his pear orchards he marked the trees that would 
suffer, pointed to the spot which would be the seat of the disease, and 
his prognostications were strictly verified. Out of his orchard of 200 pear 
trees, during the previous blight of 1832, only four escaped, and those had 
been transplanted, and had, therefore, made little or no growth. 
“ Mr. White, a nurseryman, near Mooresville, Ind., in an orchard of over 
150 trees, had not a single case of blight in the year 1844, though all 
around him its ravages were felt. What were the facts in this case? His 
orchard is planted on a mould-like piece of ground, is high, of a sandy, 
gravelly soil; earlier by a week than nursery soils in 'his country; and 
in the summer of 1843, his trees grew through the summer, ripened and 
shed their leaves early in the fall, and during the warm spell made nc 
second growth.” 
