uo 



DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



whitewash applied in the autumn remained on his 

 trees during the wholo winter. That would bo 

 necessary to enable us to judge whether it had a 

 fair trial, supposing his trees to have suflered by 

 frozen sap blight. 11" Mr. Ernst's view is correct, 

 they may have been injured solely by sun blight; 

 and in this ease, the whitewash, to act as a preven- 

 tive, ought to have been renewed in the spring. 



Since Mr. Ernst's article has been in type, we 

 have received the Septembtr number of the Revue 

 Horticolc, from Paris. The following extract from 

 an article which it contains on the culture of the 

 apple, by M. Bravy, is highly interesting, as re- 

 lating directly to this subject ; and as exhibiting a 

 singular coincidence of opinion on opposite sides of 

 the Atlantic ; for Mr. Ernst could not have seen 

 this article when his own views were written, and 

 we do not suppose M. Bravy had seen ours re- 

 garding the use of whitewash, though written a 

 year or more ago : 



'■ The apple, like the pear, is very subject to 

 canker {chancre,) a disease which, as I have al- 

 ready remarked, is produced by the impoverish- 

 ment of the soil, and the excess of moisture, or of 

 drouth. Besides these causes, I am convinced 

 that the too powerful rays of a burning sun {des 

 coup dc soldi trop ardents,) occurring immediately 

 after a shower or cloudy weather, and striking the 

 stem or branches still wet, often produces, in young 

 trees, the dessication of some portions of the bark, 

 or dry canker. What proves this, is the fact that 

 these appearances show themselves almost always 

 on the south side of the stem, and more especially 

 the south-south-west side; or in common phrase, 

 ' towards the two o'clock sun.' A very efficient 

 means of protecting the trees is to coat them, in 

 the spring, with a layer of whitewash. This ope- 

 ration, very simple and unexpensive, has additional 

 advantages ; it prevents the growth of moss and 

 lichens on the bark, and destroys or drives away 

 the insects which harbor there. I cannot too 

 strongly recommend its use." 



The foregoing paragraph comprises Mr. Ernst's 

 theory of the bligiit, and our proposed remedy. We 



firoposed it, theoretically, a year before the pub- 

 ication of M. Bravy's article ; but he speaks of 

 it as something whose practical value is well known 

 to him ; and he is considered one of the leading 

 French horticulturists. 



A word or two more touching the value of 

 ■whitewash. The editors of the American Journal 

 of Agriculture, Albany, in an article on this sub- 

 ject (July, 1847,) made the following remarks : 



" We dissent from the author of this theory 

 fmeaning us,] in regard to the proposed remedy, 

 viz., a coating of whitewash. This seems to have 

 been proposed from a misapprehension of the nature 

 of the coating itself; for, in fact, so far as the coat- 

 ing operates at all, it must promote, rather than 

 retard, the freezing of the sap. An earthy mate- 

 rial, of the nature of whitewash, is a better con- 

 ductor of heat than the porous and partially dry 

 cuticle itself." 



Now, fortunately, the effect of whitewash is a 

 matter not involved in much obscurity, and easily 

 tested by experiment. It is, we believe, the point 

 most fullv conceded, that whether in winter or 



summer, it is the «wn's rays which cause the blight; 

 in winter, by sudden thawing after frost, as we 

 stated ; in summer by the intensity of its rays, as 

 Messrs. Ernst & Bravy have pointed out. Hence, 

 what is wanted would appear to be a protection 

 against the sun's rays. For it is the sudden thaw- 

 ing in winter, and not the freezing, as the Ameri- 

 can Journal supposes, which does the mischief. 



Common sense, as well as philoso[ihy, tells us 

 that dark colours exposed to the sun absorb most 

 heat, while white reflects most. Hence, it very 

 naturally follows that the bark of the pear tree, 

 being brown, is capable of being heated by the 

 sun's rays much more rapidly and completely than 

 if it were white. To settle this point more pre- 

 cisely, before sitting down to write these remarks, 

 we took two thermometers (Fahrenheit's,) agreeing 

 perfectly. The day (19th Dee.) is very bright, 

 but mild, with two inches of snow on the ground. 

 To the bulb of one of the thermometers we gave a 

 thick coating of whitewash and allowed it to be- 

 come dry; the other was left as usual. 



After being exposed for an hour to the full sun- 

 shine, the naked thermometer indicated 97° — the 

 thermometer with the whitewashed bulb only 79°. 

 This clearly shows a difference in favor of the 

 whitewash, as a protector against the sun's rays, 

 of 18°. When we consider that the colour of bark 

 is dark, and therefore, it absorbs more heat propor. 

 tionately than the clear glass or bright mercury of 

 the naked thermometer, it is plain enough that, 

 even in a winter's day, a coating of whitewash 

 must have the effect of preventing the temperature 

 of the bark, exposed to full sunshme, from rising as 

 high as it would do by 20 degrees or more. Ed.] 



A New Grafting Tool. — I herewith send you, 

 for inspection, anew horticultural implement, which 

 I call the Horizontal Stock-Splitter. Having long 

 felt, in my own practice, the need of some improve- 

 ment in the mode of splitting stocks for cleft-graft- 

 ing, I last winter set myself to the task, and with 

 the aid of a common blacksmith produced, in a few 

 days, the article before you. It was extensively 

 used the past spring in my own orchards and nurse- 

 ries, and answered admirably the purpose for which 

 it was intended. Its execution is easy, rapid, and 

 altogether satisfactory. The stock is opened with 

 a smooth, clean and uniform cut through the bark 

 and wood, with little or no splitting, and to just 

 the desired depth, (desiderata hardly to be secured 

 by the use of the knife and chisel,) and of course a 

 more perfect cleft is presented for the reception of 

 the scion, and one which holds the scion more firmly 

 than those produced by any former method. 

 ?»■' To rooi-grafting, where the roots are of the 

 larger size, it is particularly well adapted, as at 

 least a dozen stocks can be cleft by it per minute, 

 and the work performed in the very nicest manner. 

 It was for this use alone that the implement was 

 originally designed ; but by variously modifying its 

 form and size, it could obviously be applied to a 

 great variety, not only of horticultural but also of 

 domestic and mechanical purposes — the power of 

 tlie lever and knife combined being very great, 

 and the working of the implement, when laid in a 

 horizontal position, very easy and rapid. 



