472 



SALT AS APPLIED TO TILE PLUM TREE. 



tlie pale ami sickly hue of many fruit trees 

 and green liouse plants, indicating a feeble- 

 ness of vital energy, which the ordinary 

 means referred to often entirely fail to cure. 



Now those who have paid the least atten- 

 tion to vegetable physiology are aware how 

 absolutely impossible it is for a tree or plant 

 to remain healthy without the healthy action 

 of its lungs or leaves. Hence the obvious 

 importance of this discovery of a specific, 

 Avliich directly affects the diseased organs, 

 and gives us the power of restoring their 

 original state of health. 



Such a specific, it would appear, has 

 been ascertained to exist in the salts of 

 iron, and especially in the sulphate of iron, 

 commonly known as copperas. M. Gris' 

 experiments with this substance, as detailed 

 in a work he has published on this subject, 

 are very various and interesting, and we 

 cannot but think them well worthy of re- 

 peated trial and verification in this coun- 

 try. 



The yellows, that malady of the peach 

 tree, so troublesome in some parts of the 

 Union, we consider a constitutional disease, 

 originating in bad culture or indifTerent soil. 



As it manifests itself chiefly in a kind of 

 chlorosis, or pale discoloration of the leaves, 

 the trees attacked by it seem to us to be in- 

 dicated as fit subjects upon which to try M. 

 Gris' experiments. It is scarcely probable 

 that trees thoroughly diseased with the yel- 

 lows, will be restored, but the disease may 

 be arrested and finally exterminated by 

 timely applications to young trees. 



A medical friend, one of the most distin- 

 guished practitioners in this country, to 

 whom we have submitted this article by M. 

 Brogniart, remarks that iroyi has been the 

 successful remedy for chlorosis in the hu- 

 man race, time out of mind, thus giving 

 another proof of the analogy between the 

 animal and vegetable kingdoms. 



As many of our readers will no doubt 

 soon put M. Gris' recipes in immediate use^ 

 we beg them to keep accurate memoranda 

 of their mode of applying copperas water, 

 and the success attending it. 



For some remarks on the application of 

 the oxides of iron to the pear tree, see an 

 article on the efTects of Iron on the Pear, 

 which we shall publish in our next No. — 

 Ed. 



SALT AS APPLIED TO THE PLUM TREE. 

 BY L. WYIIAN, JR., WEST CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 



I HAVE received, recently, several commu- 

 nications and letters of inquiry, &c., relating 

 to the application of salt to the plum tree, 

 as a preventive to the disease, by many 

 known, or called the ''Black Wart," or 

 " Black Knot." As a knowledge of all that 

 relates to the culture of this delicious fruit, 

 deserves a prominent place in the horticul- 

 tural works, I must ask permission to give, 

 through the columns of your widely extend- 

 ed journal, a few of the practical results of 



the application of salt in the culture of the 

 plum tree, as tested by myself, in situations 

 favorable to its experimental application. 



Some eight years since, I was requested 

 to examine a small orchard of plum trees, 

 of the different choice kinds, which was lo- 

 cated near the grounds of a former or old 

 plum orchard. The stumps of some of the 

 old trees were still remaining to be seen. 

 After carefully examining the young trees, 

 which were from three to five years old, I 



