light and air, the cherry does not need very much pruning. If with
the lapse of years it becomes necessary to take off large limbs
from any fruit-tree, the authorities recommend early June as the
best season for the operation.

It will soon be discovered--quite likely during the first summer--
that fruit-trees have enemies, that they need not only cultivation
and feeding, but also protection. The pear, apple, and quince are
liable to one mysterious disease which it is almost impossible to
guard against or cure--the fireblight. Of course there have been
innumerable preventives and cures recommended, just as we see a
dozen certain remedies for consumption advertised in any popular
journal; but the disease still remains a disheartening mystery,
and is more fatal to the pear than to its kindred fruits. I have
had thrifty young trees, just coming into bearing, suddenly turn
black in both wood and foliage, appearing in the distance as if
scorched by a blast from a furnace. In another instance a large
mature tree was attacked, losing in a summer half its boughs.
These were cut out, and the remainder of the tree appeared healthy
during the following summer, and bore a good crop of fruit. The
disease often attacks but a single branch or a small portion of a
tree. The authorities advise that everything should be cut away at
once below all evidence of infection and burned. Some of my trees
have been attacked and have recovered; others were apparently
recovering, but died a year or two later. One could theorize to
the end of a volume about the trouble. I frankly confess that I
know neither the cause nor the remedy. It seems to me that our
best resource is to comply with the general conditions of good and
healthy growth. The usual experience is that trees which are
fertilized with wood-ashes and a moderate amount of lime and salt,