Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 April 1875 — Pear Tree Blight—Positive Remedies. [ARTICLE]

Pear Tree Blight—Positive Remedies.

This is a topic likely to be widely discussed during the season of conventions, and deserves attention. Pertinent to the subject we publish in the Rural New Yorker extracts from a letter written a year or more ago by William Saunders, of the gardens of the Department of Agriculture. He says: Twenty years ago I became convinced of the almost invariable presence of fungoid growths in diseased plants, and have been liberal in the application of sulphur, lime and other ingredients known to be destructive of fungoid spords. When, therefore, Thomas Meehan, a few years ago, suggested- that the socalled blight on the branches and trunks of the pear was due to the presence of fungi, I at once saw the force of his observations and conclusions, and it was a very natural resort to apply such remedies’as were well known to be effectual in similar cases. Another favorable consideration was thaeasiness of application; it would not require much labor and still less of skill to whitewash the trunk and branches of a tree; and the cost of materials*was scarcely worth counting, in comparison with the results sought to be obtained. I further recollected that the practice indulged in by some farmers in extending the operation of whitewashing outbuildings and fences so as to include the stems of the shade-trees in their dooryards (a practice which, regarded merely as an artistical embellishment, I had frequently and somewhat earnestly condemned), resulted in the maintenance of a smooth, clean bark, free from epiphytes and parasites, and instead of doing injury was evidently conducive to the health and well-being of the plant. During the summer of 1868 a standard pear tree, having a stem six inches in diameter, was observed to be almost girdled by a blight near the surface of the ground; the bark for fully threefourths of the circumference was black, indurated and deftd. On close examination it was observed that the fungoid growth was rapidly encircling the trunk and would speedily destroy the plant, as had previously occurred to several trees in the same row. A thick coating of wash was spread over the affected parts and in the course of a few weeks it became evident that “the plague was stayed.” A callus commenced to form along the margin of the remaining bark, and that tree is alive and well to - this day.

This was so far encouraging that I made semi-weekly examinations of the trees, with the view of applying the wash at' any point where its necessity was indicated; but unfortunately the first indication of disease was generally a dead branch, with blackened leave’s gone past recovery; so the wash was ot no use, and as it was not very ornamental it was for the time abandoned. It w;as then resolved to use the wash as a preventive, and during the following winter some of the more valuable trees received a careful application on the st'em and over the main branches as high up as could readily pe reached from the ground. The results of tlie» nud similar trials convinced me that this process, if it would not entirely prevent the blight on the pear tree —and I am net satisfied that it will—is so far useful as to be worthy of general adoption, not only as a preventive of fungoid growths, but also as a valuable aid iff the extermination of insects. The wash that I have used is prepared by placing half a bushel of lime and four pounds of powdered sulphur in a tight barrel, slaking the lime with hot water, the mouth of the barrel being covered with a cloth. This, is reduced to the consistence of ordinary whitewash, and at the time of application half an #unce of carbolic acid is added to each gallon of the liquid; as a matter of taste in color I have added a small portion of soot, but I think that the white color,is best for the trees. I generally apply it during early spring before the leaves make their appearance, but I am convinced that it would be more effective if applied later; but then it would be difficult to do so when the tree is in foliage —Rural New Yorker.