The Savannah morning news., 1902-09-15
Pear BLIGHT.


The disease known as pear blight,
and little understood until within a few
/ years past. has been more than usual
| ly prevalent the present season. says
! the Southern Planter. The leaves on
some branch-usually a shoot of the
/ present seasons growth-die and the
shoot soon turns black. Frequently
this extends farther down to the older
wood, and If no effort is made to stop
the malady the tree dies outright
sometimes ii will stop one season. to
begin again and run its entire course
TO the death of the tree next year
The remedy is cutting and burning
the affected branch. and this should
be done as soon as possible. The cut
ting should be some distance below the
point al which the disease seems to
stop-six TO twelve inches-so as to be
certain of removing all the diseased
wood This sometimes disfigures the
tree, but 1t is an effectual remedy if
done properly and without delay.
The malady is now known to be bac-
terial; a microscopic fungus; and it
| may be transmitted from one tree to
| another; which explains the burning
part OF the treatment recommended
above. Even a knife used on a dis
| eased branch will infect a healthy tree
by cutting into it, unless the imple-
ment is disinfected. The simplest
method of disinfection is by passing
the knife blade slowly through the
| flame of lamp, and this should be
done at once.
The same malady affects some of the
apple trees, and the ounce trees &C.
casionally, but it is not nearly so vir-
ulent, rarely or never killing the tree,
but stopping with shoots of the cur
rent seasons growth. In this case it is
raj ftrrfer
| the same.
Nearly or quite all varieties of The
| pear are subject to the blight, but
some more than others, and some are
so very liable to the disease that they
are passing out of cultivation. OF this
class are Limon, Adams, Pitmaston,
! Idaho, Brandywine, Collins, Paradise
| d'Automne, Hoosic, Moyamensing, Sell
| leck, Kingsessing, Edmonds, Giffard.
| Glout morceau, Rostiezer, and a num-
| Der of others. Even the fine old Eng
| lish Beauty is so uncertain-or rather
so certain to blight-that it is being
| passed by.
OF those which are but little affected
with blight, Seckel and Tyson may be
| said to stand at the head. Howell
would generally be placed with them,
| and may as well be now, but this
| blighty season it is somewhat affect
| ed Kieffer, when introduced twenty
years or so ago, was said never to
blight. But it will blight sometimes,
| though not a great deal. One of the
most deservedly popular varieties.
| Bartlett, blights occasionally, but usu-
ally yields to prompt treatment Its
daughter, Clapp's Favorite, very fine
/ pear, understood to be a cross with
| Flemish Beauty. is nearly as subject
TO the disease as the latter variety.
To the list of those little affected may
be added also Bloodgood, which ripens
i the latetr part of July; just before Ty-
son and Anjou formerly called Beurre
dAnjou), a late fall variety.
Understanding Oats.
Oats in Florida are not estimated at
a fair value compared with corn. very
correctly observes the Florida Agri-
culturist. Oatmeal is far preferable as
| cereal in this climate to corn-meal
| 1t is less heating to the system. offers
a better balance ration, that is, a
greater percentage of protein. which
is so necessary in a hot facilitating
climate, and a smaller percentage of
carbohydrates, fat. starch and sugar
which create fat and generate heat
and therefore objectionable in any
quantity, and are the chief ingredients
of corn.
OF course. oats do not yield in Flor
ida as they do in climate where the
erriching nitrogen of snow water
trickles down about their roots; neith-
er does corn. Oats average about ten
bushels per acre; corn about nine
But 1t is not as a grain producer in
the main that we would advocate n
wider cultivation of oats: it is as a
source of the very highest order of
stock forage to be harvested in the
dough-, reserying a couple of acres
to ripen for oatmeal for the family ia
BILE. And a good farmer will soon make
that ten into twenty
There is nothing better for hay than
oats harvested while the whole stalk
is yet green and the grain is milky or
doughty. Cut in the spring when the
customary drought is on. they can be
cured up perfect, so bright and fra
grant that they will be the delight of
all stock and extremely nutritious
withal. Oats for winter, cowpeas fo,.
spring, crabgrass for summer-this
gives succession nearly all of the
year, and the best that ingenuity can
devise for this climate
The oats and the cowpeas receive
fertilizer-only a pinch-and the crab
grass takes the leavings and the nea
stubble. A couple of acres will by act
ual test known to the writer. furnish
forage for horse and two cows the
year round; and surely nobody could
quarrel with Florida for this achieve
ment.
Oats are subject to smut and rust.
but the latter may be flanked by send
ing to Texas for rust proof seed. Smut
is a cause of serious loss in more
Northern states, but there it has been
discovered that 1t may be prevented hy
the hot water treatment discovered by
a Dane named Jensen. Fungus spores
have less vitality than the germs of the
grain, and this enables us to destroy
the former without impairing the lat
ter. Water is heated to about 1873 de-
grees-oats, rye and wheat stand this
while barley endures only 126 degrees
The grain is kept In the hot water
fifteen minutes. The Kansas Expert
ment Station repeatedly tested this and
have approved same IN their bulletins
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