The greatest misfortune that the cultivator of a garden apprehends at
this season, is blight, of which, according to Dr. Forster, there are
three kinds. “The first occurs in the early spring, about the time of
the blossoming of the peach, and is nothing more than a dry frosty wind,
usually from the north or north-east, and principally affects the
blossoms, causing them to fall off prematurely. The two other kinds of
blight occur in this month, affecting principally the apple and pear
trees, and sometimes the corn. One of these consists in the appearance
of an immense multitude of aphides, a kind of small insect of a brown,
or black, or green colour, attacking the leaves of plants, and entirely
incrusting the young stems. These pests are always found to make their
appearance after a north-east wind, and it has been supposed by many
that they are actually conveyed hither by the wind. Thomson, too,
positively ascribes them to the north wind:--
For oft engendered by the hazy north,
Myriads on myriads, insect armies warp
Keen in the poisoned breeze; and wasteful eat,
Through buds and bark, into the blackened core
Their eager way.
“In our opinion, an east wind more often brings blights. Many
circumstances, indeed, favour the opinion that blights are animalculæ;
as the suddenness with which they appear, being generally in the course
of a single night, and those trees that are sheltered from the wind
being uninfected: indeed, it frequently happens that a single branch
that chances to be screened, will escape unhurt, while the rest of the
tree is quite covered with these minute destroyers. A third reason may
be derived from the inactivity of these insects: they generally remain
almost immovable on the branch or leaf where they are first seen, and
are for the most part, unprovided with wings; yet the places where they
are commonly found are those parts of a tree which are farthest from
the ground, and the most exposed to the wind. The last kind of blight is
generally preceded by a south or south-west wind, unaccompanied by
insects; the effects of which are visible in the burnt appearance of all
leaves and shoots which are exposed to that quarter. Oaks and other
large trees suffer from this blight.”[133]
_To Blossoms._
Fair pledges of a fruitful tree,
Why do ye fall so fast?
Your date is not so past,
But you may stay yet here awhile
To blush and gently smile,
And go at last!
What, were ye born to be
An hour or half’s delight?
And so to bid good night?
’Tis pity Nature brought ye forth
Merely to show your worth,
And lose you quite!
But your lovely leaves, where we
May read how soon things have
Their end, though ne’er so brave:
And after they have shown their pride,
Like you, awhile they glide
Into the grave!
_Herrick._
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