BURSTING THE BARK IN CHERRY TREES. 



267 



nor of debility ; the result of disease, but 

 not itself a disease. 



Scarcely less objectionable than the theo- 

 ry of Professor Turner, seems that of Mr. 

 Elliott, which asserts the doctrine that 

 ihe wood of a tree is solid or spongy in 

 proportion to its luxuriance of growth. If 

 this theory be true, then that most practical 

 of judges, the wood-chopper, is in error, 

 when he chooses for the handle of his im- 

 plement a hickory of the largest possible 

 annual growth, — supposing it, for that rea- 

 son, stronger and more elastic. If this 

 theory were true, then every board from the 

 hands of the polisher should present a mot- 

 ley surface, composed of alternate stripes, 

 more or less solid as the annual growths 

 were more or less luxuriant. Such a theory 

 I think is equally unsupported by the prin- 

 ciples of vegetable physiology. In the for- 

 mation of woody matter, the law of the 

 combination of atoms is fixed and invariable; 

 and to secure its enforcement, the law-ad- 

 ministering power is ever present where 

 woody fibre is formed. Thus, if upon a 

 Bartlett stock we insert the Seckel pear, 

 and again, by double work, graft the Bart- 

 lett upon the Seckel thus inserted, so that 

 the branches and roots are Bartlett and the 

 trunk Seckel ; or, on the other hand, if the 

 trunk were Bartlett, and the upper and 

 lower portions of the tree Seckel, all the 

 power of the luxuriant foliage and vigorous 

 roots of the Bartlett could never make the 

 pores and fibre of the Seckel larger than 

 was peculiar to its species ; nor could the 

 dwarfish system of roots and leaves, pecu- 

 liar to the Seckel, prevent the Bartlett trunk 

 from maintaining the same proportion to 

 the Seckel at the upper and lower points 

 of insertion, which an individual thread of 

 the woody fibre of one variety bears to an 

 individual thread of the other, — because, in 

 every tree, the size of the atoms composing 



its woody fibre is controled by the constitu- 

 ent elements of the medullary matter pecu- 

 liar to its species. It must, then, be true 

 that the tree which forms a thick cylindri- 

 cal ring of woody fibre in one year for its 

 annual growth, and a thin one another, 

 forms a greater number of single threads of 

 woody fibre in the former case than in the 

 latter ; for as they all touch, and are all of 

 the same size, its additional volume could 

 be acquired in no other way. 



The following is the very rude theory I 

 propose to submit, that is to say : The burst- 

 ing of the bark of the cherry (and some 

 other trees,) proceeds from two causes, — 

 extreme heat, or extreme cold ; to each of 

 which belongs a separate set of conditions 

 of susceptibility on the part of the tree. 

 Cold does its work, by expanding the fluids 

 in the tree to a point producing rupture of 

 the parts. A full habit of growth in the 

 tree, a wet location, and saturation of the 

 soil by heavy rains, are circumstances which 

 tend to swell the amount of fluid in the cir- 

 culation ; and if present when the tree is 

 exposed to intense cold, tend greatly to ag- 

 gravate the force of cold. Great heat — long 

 continued — sometimes does the same work- 

 by a partial or entire exhaustion of the cir- 

 culating fluids by evaporation. Its chief 

 victims are trees of feeble habit, or trees 

 casting their leaves prematurely in summer. 



If this theory were true, it would suggest, 

 as a remedy proper for trees already affect- 

 ed, mulching the roots, and wrapping the 

 affected parts with straw during winter, in 

 order to modify the effect of cold, and in 

 order to keep the injured part dry; for 

 when water is admitted freely, those inju- 

 ries spread year after year. Perhaps the 

 surest guaranty against injury from cold, 

 would be the planting upon elevated ground, 

 or some artificial hillock, calculated to se- 

 cure a perfect drainage for the roots. This 



