THE WISCONSIN FARMER.



and fragrance, and gives us a continual feast
of its gorgeous bloom and sweet perfume.
  So various are the habits, colors, and sizes of
the ever-blooming rose, that it can make a di-
versified garden of itself, an ornamental hedge
for an enclosure, garnish and beautify t he walls
of unsightly buildings, grow as dwarf bedding
plants, and as stately shrubs; clothe trellis
work for ornament, and arbors where we may
rest and repose under its grateful shade and
shelter, and feast upon its matchless fragrance.

              The Pear Blight.

  FRIEXN IIOYT:-At your suggestion in the
April No. of the FARMER, on page 147, I will
give you a trore minute description of the Pear
Blight that is infesting the trees in this locali-
ty. I have noticed accounts of it elsewhere,
so I suppose it is not a local infection.
  My trees, that were so much affected last
year with the blight, were planted on a high,
dry prairie soil, with a southern slope. The
plat is occupied as a garden, not highly man-
ured, but wvell cared for as to cultivation. It
is usually spaded up in the spring and hoed
several times during the summer.
  The trees, from the time they were planted



but the growth Isag not been so great but that
they have mai ;aed their wood in the fall, so
that they passed the ordeal of our severe win-
ters without killing. They have grown so fine-
ly and looked so healthy. till last summer, that
we looked upon them as the belles of the gar-
den. The blight was not confined to any par-
ticular time; we could see new traces of it
from May till late in the fall. Some commenced
blighting early in the spring; others did not
commence till midsummer, and as late as the
middle of September. Some leaved out in the
spring and blossomed full, set for fruit, and
the fruit was half grown when they commenced
blighting.  Some two or three Bartletts made
a growth of ten or twelve inches, and then
blossomed on the end of that growth, which set
for fruit, that grew to the sizes of a butternut,
and then blighted.
  These trees were budded on the seedling
pear, and had been planted out eight or nine
years. They were one year from the bud when
they were planted out. I have some seedlings



that are of one year's growth; they, too, were
affected in the same way.
  In spading around them, we necessarily cut
some of the roots; these have sprouted up.-
Are these sprouts good for grafting or budding?
If they are, then we can replenish by propa-
gating from these.
  Now, in setting again, would it be advisable
to set upon the same land, or would it be bet-
ter to select a new location ? Would it be the
most judicious way to set the pears on a plat
by themselves, or intermix them with other
fruit ? Several of my trees that one year ago
last summer bore one and two bushels of pears
apiece are now dead. It is an old saying that a
-bad beginning makes a good ending," but I
think that mine must be in inverse proportion,
viz: a good beginning makes a bad ending.
  If you, or any of the numerous readers of
the FAnMEti, can give us the true cause, and
then give its an ant-idote, it will be gratefully
received by many who now look upon the fu-
ture prospects of pear culture as being doubt-
ful and uncertain. I opine that the true cause
of the disease is a virus in the atmosphere,



and that the only one that is able to apply an
effectual remnedy is l1 Ile who doeth all things
well."                    11. W. WOLCOTT.
IROSENDALE, April 13, 1863.

            Wa"le in Fruit Trees.

  A singular fact, worthy of being recorded,
was mentioned to us a few days since by Mr.
Alexander Duke, of Albemarle.   Ile stated
that while on a visit to a neighbor, his atten-
tion was called to a large peach orchard, every
tree of which was totally destroyed by the ra-
vages of the worm, with the exception of three,
and these were the most thrifty and flourishing
peach trees that he ever saw. The only cause
of their superiority known to his host was an
experiment made ia consequence of observing
that those parts of worm-eaten timber into
which nails had been driven were generally
sound. When his trees were about a year old,
he drove a ten-penny nail through the body as
near the ground as possible. Whilst the bal-
ance of his orchard had gradually failed, and
finally yielded to the ravages of the worms,
three of these trees, selected at random, treat-
ed precisely in the same manner, with the ex-
ception of nailing, had always been healthy,
furnishing him at the very period with the
greatest profusion of the most luscious fruit.



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