304 QUARTERLY JOURNAL. 



Letter from J. H. Estabrook, to one of the Editors. 



Camden (Maine), August 2G, 1845. 

 Dear Sir — I send you a short article for your useful agricultural 

 periodical, should you deem it worthy of a place. 



It must be a fact known to all, who are in the habit of observing, 

 that old orchards scarcely have a tree that is not hollow, or, in other 

 words, deprived of its heart growth. Apple trees have many enemies 

 that tend to produce this effect. The borer penetrates to the heart 

 and pith, generating disease and death in that part, while the new sap 

 wood continues to grow and flourish. Cutting off" a limb too closely 

 to the trunk, will often cause rot to penetrate to the heart of the tree. 

 Woodpeckers frequently make holes, which become inhabited by 

 ants and lice, and at length disease and decay are propagated to the 

 heart of the tree. A portion of bark is often accidentally removed, 

 and the wood under it dies. This decay soon reaches the heart, 

 while nature is depositing new layers of sap-wood. After a time, 

 the external wound is healed, but the heart is gone never to return. 

 These are some of the causes that operate to produce the effects 

 visible in old orchards. We will now look at the change that this 

 produces in its fruit-bearing powers. The fruit subsequently pro- 

 duced, will be deteriorated in size, flavor and fairness ; it will be 

 incapable of reproducing from seed. Apples from this parentage, 

 after being gathered and housed, decay prematurely. All scions cut 

 from limbs of this description, will carry with them the imperfec- 

 tions of the parent stock. 



The question now arises, Is there any remedy ? I answer yes : 

 thin your old orchards, leaving nothing but limbs of three or four 

 feet in length ; from these will spring out suckers. These suckers 

 rise from the wood like in appearance to a wart ; they soon push 

 through the bark, and grow most luxuriantly, so that in a year or 

 two fruit is produced from them. Apples produced from scions of 

 this description, will be equal in every respect to the best produc- 

 tions of the parent stock in its early growth ; and why ? The sucker 

 thus produced, is in some measure a parasitic plant, finding root in 

 the bark and wood of the old stock, which gives to it its peculiar 

 character of fruit, but no farther. It has the means, within itself, 

 of its own perfect organization, and has freed itself of its parent 

 imperfections, viz. a want of pith, without which in the tree, no 

 fruit can be perfect. 



