82 CULTURE AND MANAGEMENT 



edge of the important fact, which comes from a man 

 of judgment and of an observing disposition, who has 

 again and again satisfied himself that no deception or 

 accidental circumstance occurred, by reference to 

 which the preservation of his hooped trees could be 

 accounted for." 



CANKER. 



Apple trees are very liable to be affected with the 

 canker. This disease occasions the bark to grow 

 rough and scabby, and turns the wood affected to a 

 rusty brown colour; and if no remedy be applied, 

 will in time kill the tree. It is by some described as 

 a sort of gangrene, which usually begins at the ex- 

 tremities of the branches, and proceeds towards the 

 trunk, killing the tree in two or three years. Peter 

 Yates, esquire, of Albany, observes, that his fruit trees 

 became affected with the canker, generally appearing 

 on the southwest side of the body or trunk of the tree. 

 The bark of the infected part at first appeared dark, 

 and at length rough, wrinkled, cracked, and dead. 

 The infection annually increased ; it communicated 

 to the alburnum or sap wood ; the circulation of the 

 sap-juice was obstructed ; it gradually diminished - r 

 it stagnated ; and the tree perished. The general 

 opinion respecting the cause of this disease is, that it 

 proceeds chiefly from the nature of the soil. Mr* 

 Forsyth, however, proves from experience that it 

 eriginates from the following circumstances, namely: 

 injudicious pruning ; leaving the foot stalks of fruit 

 on trees after it has been gathered ; bruises, arising 

 from the use of ladders in collecting fruit ; and dead 

 shoots, left on trees during the summer. But, says 

 Mr. Yales, " it seems extraordinary, that the fruit 

 Srees in this climate are almost invariably affected on 



