Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-03-20
pear Blight.


avail myself of the invitation, in a
recent number OF your valuable paper,
to fruit cultivators to contribute their
experience upon questions therein pro-
pounded and, having been engaged for
some twenty years in the cultivation OF
pears, and pretty extensive sufferer
from the mysterious malady known as
the pear blight, send you the result or
nv observations during that time.
In the year 1856 | had nearly three
hundred varieties under cultivation in
experimental orchards, upon which |
had expended a good and honest degree
of manuring and work in our yegeta-
BILE garden we planted some sixty trees
in pairs, some standard and some dwarfs
-thtsejof course in rich ground, and re-
ceiving good cultivation. During the
summer of the above mentioned wear,
the blight swept over my orchards and
killed about one half my trees, and
manned more or less all 1 had, except
ing about twenty; most of these recov-
cred by cutting away the affected parts,
and now are fair shaped and productive;
out of the sixty trees in the garden, only
some five or six trees now remain. In
my orchard | saved much larger pro-
portion, as the ground was poorer than
in the garden; and seeing so very plain
ly that the disease was more fatal among
my best cultivated trees, and being
somewhat discouraged and disgusted |
resolved to let them take pretty much
their own way and rough it as best they
could. Since that time | have put my
orchard in grass, blowing it up every
third year, and have not lost any by
blight until last summer.
Last spring / manfred strip about
two rods wide on one side, plowed it
well and planted it with potatoes, which
received fair cultivation. This strip of
ground had on it some eight or ten
trees, two of which died by blight,
a fine Seckel, which had been in ! me
some three or TOUR years fearing
seems that manuring, Thus L
Soou cuftlVation, Is together with
other portion roro affected in anv
were in r. ~ rronnds which
'1''t sod. We could not perceive
mere was any excess of growth IN
Nv of the trees; all bore fair crops OF
frnit and of fair size; but what caused
the disease to attack those in the cult
waited ground, in preference to those II
the uncultivated? May not the eartl
become too much heated by the sun il
the fist instance thus affecting the roots
injuriously?
1t is within our power TO make any
pear tree blight at will; yet, when W.
have done so. it throws no light upon
the cause, that it is of any practlca
value that we are aware of. We have
frequently superinduced this disease IL
the following manner: take tree three
or four years transplanted, no matter
what variety, cut off the limbs and en-
graft upon their stumps, five, SIX, Q
more varieties, as may suit the fancy
by the time these CRAFTS attain the ag
of three or four years, the tree Will e.
Their be killed, or be so much disabled b.
the blight as to be worthless. The lat
VIM. N, White, during his life, by en-
grating large number OF trees IN hi
ground in this manner, intending to ties
the character Of fruits employed, kllle
all the trees thus treated. We once Gu
the limbs from q Louise Bonnie de JeI
sew tree, and engrafted it with numbe
of varieties that we wished to test in
yerv few years thereafter, the tree wa
killed with blight Again we took
Stevens Genncsse with the same result
and again a Marie Louise and Ononda
ga, both dying in like manner
have no theory for the phenomenon
only giving the facts, so that others ma
try the experiment if they choose to d
80.
At timesI have had various theories
of the cause of this mysterious and ia
tai malady, but am not satisfied tina
any of them is of merit or worth relat
ing. All that we do know with an
certainty is, that good and thoroug
cultivation is much more likely to pre-
duce blighting than where the trees al
grown in sod land, which remains III
disturbed for three or four successiv
years, and then is put under cultivation
for one year only, and again put in Gle
yer or grass, thus rotating from time t
time. Vdn Buren, IN Country Gen
tlendn.