site logo

Bees And Pear Blight

Categories: Fruit Growing

A few years ago, I planted alfalfa between my pear trees and the trees

bore a very heavy crop that year. Then blight made its appearance, and

it was claimed that the bees carried the blight. I therefore plowed

under the alfalfa and destroyed what few beehives I had. If the theory

that the bees carry the blight from tree to tree is not correct, I will

experiment with alfalfa again this year.



It is true tha
bees carry pear blight. It is also true that you are not

likely to get many pears without bees to pollinate the blossoms. You

cannot escape the carriage of the pear blight by removing tame bees,

because wild bees are abundant in all parts of the State. The way to

overcome the blight is to pursue it by amputation of diseased branches

continually, so that there may be no contamination for the bees to

carry. You are certainly warranted in continuing your alfalfa growing

without regard to this question, using water enough to keep the alfalfa

growing well without saturating the soil to the injury of the trees or

inducing too much summer growth on them.



More

;