The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1826-08-02

oil the apparent disease, Tor disease IN
the tree itself it is not.
10 the latter end of June or in July,
one or more limbs OF tree.in the fullest
vigor, with fruit often upon them, and
with shoots of the same year, perhaps16
inches long, full of sap, suddenly appear
biasted-in three days the wood becomes
dry, and hard; aud the fruit itself is des-
sicated, and so hard as 10 be cut with die
ficulty with a knife. The effect in short
ls precisely the same as if you had saw
ed off the limb aud thrown il on the wood
pile; and so it ought TO bes for 10 effect
IT has been sawed off by the teeth OF
rather instruments Of minute insect
This partial effect in vigorous tree,
led me TO suspect il tosbe the work of au
insect. d'he first tree Of mine which
was attackedinthis manner was healthy
st. MichaePs pear.--it was filled with
fruit, and four large limbs were thus at
| tackled at once ami perished--this was ip
1916, in the month of June. As had
i,detected the insect which is the enemy
of the White Pine, and which so often
entirely destroys the beauty aud value
of that tree in the forest, and had sue
ceeded in .extirPating it, or materially
checking its depredatiens in my own
grounds, | was led 10 hope, that the
J blast of the Pear-tree might also be &C.
casioned by wood-eating insect, and
was the more encouraged TO hope this,
since the case was so rare, as | may-say,
entirely anomalous, of tree beingia
Perishing STATEN some parts, and in high
health in others.
cut off one of the diseased limbs, and.
spent many hours before detected the
cause ofthe evil. The Insects sosmalI.
IFS place of operation so concealed (no
external hole or swelling &c lead YOU to
detect iD that it requires much. care to
hnd it, Yet when discovered. the injury
was quite sufficient 10 produce all the
efect-he had eaten from the root of
bud, behind which, probably, the egg was
deposited, following the course Of the
eye of the bud into the pith, which he
had consumed, together RiibalI the heart
wood. He had then gone into :he chry-
sails state in the scene of bis. depreda-
I lions, and was in the perfect State when
found him. 4 carried the branch and in
sect to Professor PECK, VINO soon ascer-
tanned that it was the perfect iGsect Of a
wood-eatipg 1aIva, of which the. genus
vas known, though this species was new.
afterwards found others of them; and
this day, after slw you, detected a
hole which had been made by one, Of
/ these insects, and have no doubt that any
patient aud curious investigator will find
them IN eJFry diseased limb.
10 make this examination more easy,
| would remark, that you ought TO begin
belor, notin the centre of the blasted
limb. If an insect should saw off twig
eight feet below its extremity, it would
begin,to die first at the top. The hole or
] space eaten viii be found at the root OF
tsone bud, and in the centre ofthe twig.
rs soon as knew tie. cause Of the
disease, applied the same remedy
which1 had done for The white pine eat
er. cut off all the affected limbs quite
close 10, the main STEM. aad far below all
disease, aud burnt them. Il extirpated
the disease from the tree, aud ten years
have since elapsed without its reappear-
ance. The very day you called upon
me with Gov. LINcoLN'ssletter,s Il found
/ another healthy tree attacked, aud have
proceeded in the same manner.
There are those Who are ncredulous
as TO this minute Insects being the cause
OF This evil. can only say, that on all
subjects of this sort, never seek for tive
| solutions, when one is sufficient
i Thedegree Of injury which Professor
PECK, and many Others, as well as my.
self, Saw inflicted By this insect, is suffi:
cient TO destroy an oak, or an lelm, OF
any other the most stately tree. Did
this Indeed do it? Yes /: no human art
! could have made soregular, and beauti.
iful an incisien. The size and form Of
the opening was soch, as such an iusecl
could make. The insect was of a genus
which sobsists on wood.
SFhe remedy is instant extirpation oil
the limb eff .cted. Il applied this remedy
aGd The disease ceased. These are nv
reasons for believing that the insect,
named by Mr.. PECK, "Scolytus'Pyrl'' i:
the cause of the apparent disease, called
Fire Blast, oil pear-.rees.
/ J. LOWELL.
4
Professor PEcK's notice of the insect
I mentioned above by MIR. LOWELL, may be
found in aorarticle, published in the Mas
sachusetis Agricultural Journal, for Jan
/ 1917, vol. iv.No. 9, from which we have
Eextracled the following
i "For several years past, the ends 0
the branches Of the p ar-tree have