112 



HORTICULTURAL SUGGESTIONS AND MEMORANDA. 



bearing. Until nurserymen will fully un- 

 derstand, that all grafts from any tree are 

 not alike good, and, above all, that grafts 

 from diseased trees are worse than worth- 

 less, it is plain enough that almost as much 

 evil as good will result from grafting ; but 

 our nurserymen are, we trust, fast throw- 

 ing aside all such ignorance, both of their 

 business and their interest, and better cul- 

 tivation must necessarily result from belter 

 information. 



The best proof of this progress is the re- 

 ceipt of such articles as Mr. Hooker's 

 Root-grafting, (which, as we know, is prac- 

 ticed to an immense extent every year in 

 the nurseries of western New- York, where 

 a single nurseryman works more than 100,- 

 000 apple trees alone in a season, in this 

 way,) is, as he rightly esteems it, one of 

 the most perfect modes of effecting a union 

 between the scion and the stock yet in- 

 vented. Ed. 



HORTICULTURAL SUGGESTIONS AND MEMORANDA. 



BY PROFESSOR TURNER, ILLINOIS COLLEGE. 



A. J. Downing, Esq. — Dear Sir: After 

 quite too long a delay, I proceed to redeem 

 my promise to report progress for the sea- 

 son. My excuse for this delay may be 

 found in a few words, — late spring, deep 

 mud, wet weather, sick hands, and last, 

 though not least, the twin brothers — Cali- 

 fornia and cholera; the one a madness of 

 :the brain, the other of the bowels ; and 

 both epidemic, if not contagious. But to 

 drop excuses and proceed to business ; and 

 .first : 



Cherries. — I well knew that peeling a 

 ring around a cherry tree endangered its 

 life, as our respected Massachusetts friend 

 suggests, in your last number. On the 

 very tree to which I alluded in my last 

 article, in the course of my experiments I 

 peeled a ring of bark off from a limb, about 

 one inch and one-half through, for about 

 one and one-half inches in length. I left 

 this limb standing in this condition through 

 the winter, and in spring it was perfectly 

 dead, while all the other limbs which were 

 wholly peeled are still alive and in fine con- 

 dition. In a word, I have never y^t known 

 a tree wholly peeled, in this climate, to be 



injured, though I have known it to produce 

 injury, in most cases when only partially 

 done, from what I suppose to be a conges- 

 tion of the sap about the part which is 

 peeled, — producing too great an exposure 

 at the point, both to fermentation from 

 heat, and congelation or frost from cold. 

 I have never, however, tried our friend 

 Newton's mode of slitting; but while I 

 fear it would not be found sufficiently ef- 

 fective in our soil and climate, I think the 

 suggestion eminently timely and judicious 

 for the more northern latitudes. 



Pears. — The disease of the leaf of my 

 pear trees, to which I alluded last season, 

 still continues its ravages. I have noted it 

 more carefully this year than ever before. 



It begins to appear in the spring, even 

 before the leaf opens. The folded leaf- 

 lets, as soon as they first begin to peep 

 into sight, are all covered with red carbun- 

 cles. As the leaf expands, these grow 

 larger, and first change from their scarlet 

 colour to pale yellow, skirted with a dingy 

 pale green, and confined mostly to the 

 central parts of the leaf. These blotches 

 continued to manifest more and more of 



