CAN 



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CAN 



of treatment that I have always found t the disease. Mr. Forsyth, formerly 

 successful in effecting a cure in any j gardener at Kensington Palace, made a 

 variety, not decrepid from age, if the j considerable sensation at the close of 



caniier has not spread to the roots. 



the last and at the commencement of 



Having completely headed down, if the present century, by the wonderful 



the canker is generally prevalent, or 

 duly thinned the branches, entirely re- 

 moved every small One that is in the 

 least degree diseased, and cut away 

 the decayed parts of the larger, so as 

 not to leave a single speck of the de- 

 cayed wood, I cover over the surface of 

 each wound with a mixture while in a 

 melted state, of eijual parts tar and 

 rosin, applying it with a brush imme- 

 diately after the amputation has been 

 performed, taking care to select a dry 



effects produced upon trees, as he as- 

 serted, by the following composition, 

 used as a plaster over the wounds from 

 which the decayed or cankered parts 

 had been cut out : — One bushel of fresh 

 cow-dung ; half a bushel of lime rub- 

 bish, that from ceilings of rooms is 

 preferable, or powdered chalk ; half a 

 bushel of wood-ashes ; one-sixteenth of 

 a bushel of sand ; the three last to be 

 sifted fine. The whole to be mixed 

 and beaten together until they form a 



day. I prefer this to any composition fine plaster. 



with a basis of cow-dung and clay, be- [ Mr. Forsyth received a parlimentary 

 cause the latter is always more or less grant of money for his discovery ; but 

 absorbent of moisture, and is liable to this, as Mr. Knight observes, " affords 

 injury by rain and frost, causing alter- | a much better proof that he was paid 

 nations of moisture and dryness to the I for an important discovery, than that he 

 wounds, that promote decay rather than ; made one." 



their healing, by the formation of new [ It has been very ingeniously sug- 

 wood and bark. The resinous plaster | gested, that if a destruction of the bark 

 seldom or never requires renewal. Mr. i by external violence, and consequently 

 Forsyth, the arch-advocate of earthy j likely to terminate in canker, has oc- 

 and alkaline plasters, finding that they i curred, it would be a good plan to in- 



promoted decay, if applied to the 

 wounds of autumn-pruned trees, re- 

 commends this important act of culti- 

 vation to be postponed to the spring. 

 Such a procrastination is always liable 

 to defer the pruning until bleeding is 

 the consequence. If a resinous plaster 

 be employed, it excludes the wet, and 

 obviates the objection to autumnal 

 pruning. Mr. Forsyth's treatment of 

 the trunks and branches of trees, 

 namely, scraping from them all the 

 scaly dry exuvia of the bark, is to be 

 adopted in every instance. He recom- 

 mends them to be brushed over with a 

 thin liquid compound of fresh cow-dung, 

 soap-suds, and urine, but I very much 

 prefer a brine of common salt; each 

 acts as a gentle stimulus, which is their 

 chief cause of benefit, and the latter is 

 more efficacious, destroying insects, and 

 does not, like the other, obstruct the 

 perspiratory vessels of the tree. The 

 brine is advantageously rubbed in with 

 a scrubbing or large painter's brush. 

 Some persons recommend a liquid 

 wash, containing, as prominent ingre- 

 dients, quick-lime and wood-ashes, 

 which, as the disease arises from an 

 over-alkalescent state of the sap, can- 

 not but prove injurious, and aggravate 



sert, as in budding, a piece of living 

 bark, exactly corresponding to the ex- 

 cision, from a less valuable tree. 



In conclusion, I would enforce upon 

 the orchardist's attention the import- 

 ance of obtaining his grafts or buds 

 from trees not affected by the disease, 

 because apparently it is hereditary ; 

 and, altlujugh after-culture may eradi- 

 cate the malady, it is always far better 

 to avoid the infection, than to have to 

 employ a specific. Having noticed the 

 gangrene as it appears in various forms 

 upon our trees, we may now turn to a 

 few of the many instances where it oc- 

 curs to our fruits and flowers, liir it is 

 not too much to say that scarcely a 

 cultivated plant is within our enclo- 

 sures that is not liable to its inroads. 

 It assumes different aspects, and varies 

 as to the organs it assails ; \ct still in 

 some mode, and in some of their parts, 

 all occasionally suffer, for it is the most 

 common form of vegetable disease. 



The canker in the auricula is of this 

 nature, being a rapidly-spreading ulcer, 

 which, destroying the whole texture ot 

 the plant where it occurs, prevents the 

 rise of the sap. Some gardeners be- 

 lieve it to be infectious, and therefore 

 destroy the specimen in which it occurs, 



