162 



REMARKS ON BARK-BOUND CHERRY TREES. 



in summer." This I have myself prac- 

 ticed, not only in summer, but also in win- 

 ter, and have seen the same practiced upon 

 trees of twenty years' age; and, as Prof. 

 T. remarks, " the remedy has as often 

 failed as it has succeeded." The slitting 

 with a knife was practiced by a friend of 

 mine, an amateur in fruit culture, many 

 years si;:ce, and without success ; coming 

 at last to the conclusion which impressed 

 the mind of Rev. H. W. Beiicher, who, in 

 a few remarks respecting this practice, 

 says "he should as soon think of slitting 

 the skin on a boy's legs, or on calves or 

 colts, as a regular part of a plan of rearing 

 them, as to slash the bark of sound and 

 healthy trees." Prof. Turner does not ad- 

 vocate the slitting of the bark I am aware. 

 Yet I allude to it here, from the fact of 

 having noticed a large number of trees 

 this season, most unmercifully slitted and 

 gashed — vertically, horizontally, zig-zag, 

 and waved : " Prof. Turner, of Illinois 

 college, advises it, and we thought we 

 would try it." 



Every one who has ever tried it upon 

 trees, knows that by slitting the bark of 

 almost any tree when it is in vigorous 

 growth, it will immediately expand, as 

 though it had been compressed by a ban- 

 dage. Artificial channels, so produced, are 

 however soon filled up by new granula- 

 tions, or layers of bark, and of course as 

 much " bark-bound" as before the operation. 



Professor Turner would strip the entire 

 outer corticle from the tree, and by this 

 check the accumulation of sap to the gorging 

 of the vessels of the trunk as dead matter. 

 This, I believe, is the practice, as advised 

 by him to be pursued. Prof. T. remarks 

 that this dead matter accumulates upon 

 " the southern side of the tree, to be frozen 

 and torn off by the frosts of winter." The 

 word southern i I presume, is placed rather 



to designate the side of the tree upon which 

 the " dead matter" is most generally sup- 

 posed to be found, than as decisive of the 

 only side upon which the tree is affected. 



But now to my own observations and be- 

 lief. And first, the bursting of the bark is 

 not confined alone to the cherry, but may 

 be found upon the apple, pear, peach, and 

 Linden tree ; possibly upon others, but not 

 to my knowledge. The same exudation of 

 sap or gummy matter does not follow such 

 bursting, except in the peach. This burst- 

 ing is also as rarely found upon trees of the 

 common Mazzard or the Kentish, as upon 

 the apple and pear; and therefore the 

 trunks of these varieties are naturally as 

 healthy and little subject to this bursting 

 of the bark as other species. 



To satisfy myself of this, I have examined 

 numbers of large trees of Mazzards, both 

 growing upon the richest of clay loam soil, 

 on moderate soil, and upon a sandy loam; 

 and also have examined the trunks of large 

 trees, the tops of which are yearly producing 

 the Black Heart, White Heart, Bigarreau, 

 &c. Many that I have seen were grafted 

 or budded at about one-half the distance 

 up the trunk, leaving one-half the trunk 

 Mazzard, and the other of the budded va- 

 rieiy. In all cases, I have found the Maz- 

 zards the most free from any bursting of 

 the bark. The rage with purchasers of 

 trees, to procure " large, straight and thrifty 

 trees," has doubtless been an incitement to 

 nurserymen to prepare the soil in which 

 they were growing trees for sale, so that 

 they could produce a growth of from eight 

 to eleven feet in a season ; and this urging 

 of the soil, too often aided by the strong 

 roots of an old sucker, rather than the fibres 

 of a young seedling. These trees, so pro- 

 duced, cannot have wood as firm and close 

 as is natural to the cherry, because the 

 growth is beyond its natural habit. 



