A dictionary of modern gardening - University Library

CAN 120 CAN
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and although the gardener's, like the they sustain, however young and vigorphysician's
skill, may retard the onward ous they were when first planted.
pace of death, he will not be perma- How inductive of this disease is a wet
iiently delayed. In the last periods ofi retentive subsoil, if the roots penetrate
life they show every sym[)tom that ac- it, appears from the statement of Mr.
companies organization in its old age, VVatts, gardener to R. G. Russell, Esq.,
not only a cessation of growth, but a
decay of former development, a languid
of Chequers Court, in Buckinghamshire.
—A border beneath a south wall had a
circulation and diseased organs.
soil three feet and a half in depth, ap-
The canker, as already observed, parently of the most fertile staple, twice
attends especially the old age of some re-made under the direction of the late
fruit trees, and of these the apple is Mr. Lee, of the Vineyard, Hammer-
most remarkably a sufferer. " I do not smith. In this the trees, peaches and
mean," says Mr. Knight, " to assert nectarines, flourish for the next three
that there ever was a time when an or four years after they are planted, but
apple-tree did not canker on unfavoura- are then rapidly destroyed by the
ble soils, or that highly cultivated va- canker and gum. The subsoil is a stiff
rieties were not more subject to the sour clay, nearly approaching to a brick
disease than others, where the soil did
Tiot suit them. But I assert from my
own experience and observation within
earth ; and the disease occurs as soon
as it is reached by the roots of the tree.
But this is certainly not a conclusion
the last twenty years, that this disease warranted by the premises, because the
becomes progressively more fatal to acridity of the sap, whatever may be its
each variety, as the age of that variety source, would be likely to injure and
beyond a certain period increases ; that corrode, in the first instance, those parts
if an old worn-out orchard be planted
with fruit trees, the varieties of the
apple, which I have found in the cata-
where the vessels are most weak and
tender; now these, past dispute, are in
the branches. Moreover, we generally
logues of the middle of the seventeenth see the youngest branches the earliest
century, are unproductive of fruit, and sufferers.
in a state of debility and decay."
Among the individuals particularly
Pruning has a powerful influence in
preventing the occurrence of the canker.
liable to be infected, are those which I remember a standard russet apple-
have been marked by an excessively tree of not more than twenty years'
vigorous growth in their early years. I
had one in my garden at Great Totham,
growth, with a redundancy of ill-arranged
branches, that was excessively
which for the first twelve years of its attacked by this disease. I had two of
existence was remarkable lor the un- its three main branches, and the laterals
naturally large size
its annual shoots.
and
It
abundance of
then became
of that remaining, carefully thinned ;
all the infected parts being at the same
grievously affected by canker, which a^t
length destroyed it.
time removed. The result was a total
cure. The branches were annually re-
Trees injudiciously pruned or growguhited, and for six years the disease
ing upon an ungenial soil, are more never re-appeared. At the end of that
frequently attacked than those advancing
under contrary circumstances. The
time the tree had to be removed, as the
ground it stood upon was required for
oldest trees are always the first attack- another purpose. John Williams, Esq.,
ed of those similarly cultivated. The of Pitmaston, from long experience
golden pippin, the oldest existing varie- concludes, that the golden pippin and
ty of the apple, is more frequently and other apples may be preserved from
more seriously attacked than any other. this disease, by pruning away every
The soil has a very considerable influ- year that part of each shoot which is
ence in inducing the disease. If the not perlectly ripened. By pursuing this
subsoil be a ferruginous gravel, or if it method for six years, he brought a
is not well drained, and the soil be alu- dwarf golden pippin tree to be as vigorniinous,
and effective means are not ous and as free from canker as any new
adopted to free it of superabundant variety.
moisture, the canker, under any one of All these facts unite in assuring us
these circumstances, is almost certain that the canker arises from the tree's
weakness, from a deficiency in its vital
to make its appearance amongst the trees i