354 THE GARDENER. [Aug. 



any other before running to seed. The Paris White Cos, London 

 Market Cos, Moore Park, Alma, and Hohne Park, are all excellent 

 Lettuce, and form sufl&cient variety, with the hardy sorts previously 

 referred to, for almost any establishment. 



D. Thomson. 



THE CULTIVATION OF HARDY FRUITS. 

 THE APPLE. 



{Continued from page 301 . ) 



I NOW come to speak of the diseases to which the Apple is subject in 

 Britain ; and first of all I would refer to canker. This is the greatest 

 enemy, and perhaps the worst to master, of all the ills against which 

 the cultivator of the Apple has to contend. As I hinted in a former 

 portion of this article, it is my humble belief that it is both constitu- 

 tional and hereditary to a very great extent. My conclusions on this 

 point are arrived at after long watching and close observation made 

 upon hundreds of varieties of the Apple. It must have been observed 

 by all gardeners that several varieties are far more liable to canker than 

 others which may be growing side by side with them in the garden or 

 the orchard. And, further, I have seen young trees (maidens) received 

 from the nursery apparently in the best health, which, during their 

 first year's probation, succumbed to the ruthless power of canker. How 

 is this to be accounted for 1 What answer, my reader, would you give 

 to your master if the half of a quantity of young trees bought in during 

 the current year should die upon your hands ere 1870 should close 

 over your head ? Very probably you will say, " Why, sir, they have 

 died of canker." Now this is all good enough so far as it goes, but 

 should he further argue that canker is a disease which is brought on 

 by surrounding circumstances — either a wet subsoil, a bad climate, a 

 wound from the spade, the hammer, or the knife ; and that he cannot 

 see why in the course of one short year canker should have destroyed 

 one half of the trees — what would you answer 1 If you will allow me, I 

 will tell you what answer you ought to make. It must be evident that for 

 one year they cannot have been so badly managed as to bring the dis- 

 ease upon them to such an extent, so the answer must be that the dis- 

 ease in this case was constitutional and hereditary. In such a case as 

 this, the scions must have been taken from old trees full of the disease, 

 which, however, the energy and power of a healthy stock have prevented 

 from yielding to its baneful influences while in the nursery and during 

 its first year's growth. The lifting, however, with the subsequent 



