30 ENGLAND AS A MARKET GARDEN. [Nov. 



more or less by thunderstorms in the month of July. Tlie trees 

 were then in full sap, and their leaves fully expanded. The jilan- 

 tatious shortly afterwards had all tlie appearance of Iiaving been 

 overrun by a fire. Since that time the larch has been in a very 

 ■unsatisfactory state of health, from a disease known as the cancerous 

 disease, which affects the bark, causing large contorted blisters to 

 arise and tlie sap to flow out. So far as I am aware, there has 

 never been any good reason assigned for the disease, and it still 

 remains as great a mystery as the potato blight. It has been 

 suggested that the tree is weak in constitution from defective seed. 

 It also suffers much from late spring frosts, which no doulst liave a 

 tendency to lu-ing this disease on the bark by a sudden stoppage of 

 the sap. But trees are like animals ; they must be raised from a 

 healthy stock, otherwise their progeny will be unhealthy. There 

 has, however, been a considerable improvement in the young larch ; 

 and this maj- be attributed to our nurserymen using more care in 

 procuring the best seed from the most healthy trees, and to foresters 

 draining and selecting land more congenial to its growth. 



ENGLAND AS A MAEKET-GAEDEK 



AEETIEED Indian physician, well known in Edinburgh as an 

 expert in turnery and carved work, gathers up the fact, from 

 the late Exhibition, that many of our fruit-trees yield hard, durable, 

 and brilliantly-coloured woods which are suited for inlaying, veneer- 

 ing, and other purposes. The wood of fruit-trees usually preserves 

 in it the colour of the fruit, and it retains that colour in drying, 

 better than colour imparted artificially by dyes. For this reason 

 alone we might call attention to an article with the alrove title in 

 the October number of Tlw Nineteenth Centiiry. If, as the Eev. Mr. 

 Dunster there asserts, a coming agricultural revolution has set in 

 which no concessions on the part of landlords, nor high farming, 

 nor increased capital can avert, it is the special business of a 

 journal of estate management to apprise its readers of such a 

 coming typhoon. 



The paper is an out-and-out statistical one. By a few figures 

 the author alike states his case, and its remedy. Ecnts have fallen 

 throughout the country 20, 25, and even 50 per cent. Lord Derby 

 recently showed to an agricultural association in Lancashire, that 

 the reduced value of the fee-simple of the land was certainly 15 

 per cent., perhaps 20 per cent., less for the country than it was 

 ten years ago. Where is the remedy ? Not in cereals, for wheat 

 is now being produced cheaper than we can raise it in every 



