NEW SMIiliAIf B FAim 



Published by John B. Russell, at M>. 62 JVorth Market Street, (over the ^Agricultural ff'urehouse). — Thomas G. Fkssemjkk, Editor. 



VOL. VII. 



BOSTON, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1828 



No. 20. 



HORTICULTUUE. 



FOR THE NEW ENGLAND rAniUER. 



DISEASE IN FRUIT TREES. 

 :Mn. Editor, — I regularly look inlo your ■\veck- 



)y paper with a view to get any passing informa- 

 tion that may be current in regard to fVirit trees, 



as 1 have a lew in my garden of different species 

 Whicli I have become fond of, because I have 



raised tbcni up from infancy — a desire to keep 



them in healtb, has induced me occasionally to 



look over the communications which have been 



made to the public in former, as well as in the 



present days. Through your papers I have fre- 

 ■ quHiitly received useful information ; but not be- 

 ing acquainted with the physiology of plants, I am 



obliged to resort to .such authors as are, and in 



the course of my researches I have fallen on some 



volumes of the olden time, that .are still, I believe, 



considered in Europe as standard works. It is ! seased branches. 



I am upon this subject of the diseases of trees, I 

 will, with your leave, ask if Mr. J. Ijhfl, of Allia- 

 ny, who has published an article on "fire blight," 

 id your last paper, [Nov. 21st] means to say that 

 ifie disease commonly called fire blight is a vttv 

 disease or unknown till of late years, and whether 

 the disease which we see on the branches of the 

 ■plum, and niorello cherry is also of recent date ? 



!rVoin his communication I should judge that he 

 lad never heard of them until lately — and that a 

 new set of insects had arisen in our coimtry to 

 effect all this intolerable evil. But if I am not 

 mistaken, I have read in some v.orks pubHshed in 

 Europe, some eighty or ninety years ago, a minute 

 description of both these diseases, and by men who 

 were, and are still supposed to possess as perfect a 

 iinowledge of these subjects, as any that had gone 

 belijre them, or have written on the subject since, 

 up to the time of Mr. Buel. This gentleman pay.s 

 he perseveres in cutting off^ and burning the d 

 and has thereby overcome the 



true, I have been told by the conductor of a great I evil. I apprehend that any one who will persn-ere 



Ilonicultmal Establishment, that the Europeans 

 knew nothing about fruits or fruit trees, and that 

 all correct knowledge on the subject is to be found 

 here in this country ; at least that the English and 

 French are totally ignorant, and as I can read no 

 Cther languages among the Europeans than these, 

 I am of course obliged to depend on the exper- 

 ience of those in this country, whose science and 

 extensive cultivation enable them to instruct the 

 noviciate in his duties. But I find such a diversi- 



ty of o])iuion.s as to the modes of planling, prun^'ji** 'i'®''® are protected ; in particular, light sandy 



ing, manuring, and general management of trees, 

 that I am at a loss to know whom to follow — and 

 tts my former dependence on the English and 

 French cultivators has been set at nought by fi 

 distinguished, and very celebrated horticulturist if 

 our own country, like a ship without a rudder, or 

 « bird without a tail, I am unable to pursue an;' 

 consistent cour.-<e. 



I want to see some writer come forward who 

 will give us a regular treatise upon the propaga- 

 tion and raising of trees in nurseries — with the 

 manner of treating them until they are in a state 

 to be transplanted to the places in the garden or 

 orchard where they are to remain, and produce 

 their fruit — upon their treatment there — a des- 

 cription of the soil suited to each kind of fruit-- 

 the manner of prejjaring such soil to receive ths 

 trees — its depth for the different species — the 

 depth at which different trees should be planted — 



in this course will be equally successful ; it is an 

 old practice recommended by the writers I have 

 alluded to, and I have no doubt is a good one, 



But there is another part of Mr. Buel's theory, 

 which I have less confidence in — that is, that the 

 e\il is produced by insects. There is no doubt 

 that insects arc found in these tumors, because 

 lb? eggs are there deposited when the extravasat- 

 ed sap is in its tender and alburgineous state. But 

 as diis evil does not arise in some soils, and where 



soils, not too much manured ; and does invariably 

 in .the richer and more highly manured spots, I 

 shotild pause before I adopt Mr. Buel's theory. 

 But, as this gentleman says, "it ill becomes mo, 

 after olijecting to other theories to set up one of 

 my own, without atnjile proof to support it ; but 

 as my otdy object is to inci'c investigation, and 

 elicit truth, I hope I shall be pardoned for my pre- 

 sumption in suggesting it, unsupported by anything 

 but casual observation and reflection." 



My theory is, like Mr. Buel's, an old one; both 

 existing, I believe, many years before either of us 

 were born. Different species of trees, and differ 

 ent varieties of each .species require for their well 

 being, different qualities or descriptions of soil, 

 and different inodes of culture. Some trees, like 

 the ai)ple, the pear, and the peach, require a good 

 depth of soil. Others, like the cherry, and the 

 plum, are content and thrive as well, if not bet- 



the mode of pruning vvliile young, and again when ter, in a soil of less depth. Some fruits, like the 

 in full hearing — the kind of niamne, if any, suited Brown Bemie, St. Germain, Virgouleuse and Col- 



to each species of fruit, and the best mode of 

 ti'eating the various diseases to which each spe- 

 cies, or the varieties of each species are sidijcct. 

 To this I should like to see added a list of all 

 fruits by their proper names — their time of matur- 

 «y, and the time proper to gather and preserve 

 them. I am aware that there are many treatises 

 before the jiublic, that treat of these subjects in 

 part, but they are imperfect and mostly compila- 

 tions from English or French authors, by whom, 

 in general, little is said of the diseases of fruit 

 trees ; and if they had said more, I suppose they 

 know as little of this subject as they do of fruits. 



mar, require a rich soil ; while the St. Michael, 

 the Moorfowl Egg, the Cnlotle Suisse, the Cuisse 

 Madame, &c. do better in a light gravelly soil. — 

 Some fruits require the shelter of the town, others 

 do better in the open country ; some do best train- 

 ed on trelli.ses with a south aspect, others of the 

 same species are ruined by this exposure ; some 

 delight in a wall and are all the better for it, while 

 others are rendered insipid and worthless by this 

 sort of forcing. In my little way, for I have not, 

 like Mr. Buel, thousands of plum and cherry 

 trees to contend with, I have invariably found that 

 here my plum trees have been planted in a 



and of the general culture of trees. Apropos — as light, shallow soil, they have uot been subject to 



the disease in (juestion, and where they were 

 l>liuitcd in rich, deep and moist soils tliey liavfe 

 been covered with the disease, i.ike Mr. Bueii, 

 I have been accustomed to cut out the disease, or 

 cut off' the limb, as the case might require ; but in 

 such soils I have found it retuin until I have be- 

 come disgusted with the trees, and taken them up. 



In our town of Salem, and our nKighboring town 

 of Beverly, plums, the best of pKums, (the:Groeii 

 Gage,) succeeds jierfectly. Whenever theyfare 

 cultivated in a suitable soil, they produce tiro 

 greatest abundance of good ft!uit, and our trees 

 are seldoin disfigured with the disease alluded to; 

 while in the neighborhood of Boston scarcely a 

 plum tree can be seen in good estate. I ought, 

 perhaps, to except thejplains of Cambridge and its 

 neighborhood; Chailestown hills, and some -parts 

 of Dorchester and Itoxbury, where plums are easi- 

 ly raised in perfection. But a suitable cliin.ate, 

 combined with a suitable soil, after all, make 

 healthy trees, and healthy, fine, and delicious frui;. 

 In such situations, but little care from the cultiva- 

 tor is necessary ; the lopping of a few branches, 

 that may interfere, or tiiat may have run them- 

 selves out by overbearing, is all that may be re- 

 quired, until the trees need renovating by having 

 fresh virgin earth applied to their roots. In the 

 same garden, some pluin trees will be covered 

 with this species of leprosy, while others at a dis- 

 tance from them and in a different soil will be 

 fVee from corruption. 



A NEW CORRESPONDENT. 



JVovemhcr 2:11,, 1828. 



[By the Editor.] 



A Methodical Treatise on the CulHcalion of the Mvl- 

 herry Tree, on the Raising of Silk Worms, and on 

 Winding the Silk from the Cocoons. United to an 

 accurate description of the Winding Mill. With 

 Plates. Mridged from the French of M. De la 

 Brousse : tfith Motes and an Appendix. By W. 

 n. Ver>on, of Rhode Island. 

 A work with the above title has lately been pub- 

 lished by Hilliard, Gray & Co. Boston, containing 

 useful information on a subject, which has lately 

 been much canvassed, and elicited the intellectual 

 efforts of many of the first minds in the country. 

 We should be happy to give our readers an intel- 

 ligible and useful sketch of the contents of this 

 hook ; but it is not possible to abridge, to any use- 

 ful purpose, details of processes of the kind neces- 

 sary for the manufacture of silk, or indeed for the 

 production of any other v.ork of art, re<iuiring skill 

 as well as labor. One might as well attempt to 

 curtail the steps of a ladder without injury to the 

 iiii[)lement, or destroying the fiicilities it presents 

 for ascending a given height. We shall therefore 

 merely give such quotations from the work as shall 

 show its objects, and enable our readers to Ibrm 

 some estimation of its value. 



The first part com])ri/.es a well digested treatise 

 on the cultivation of the mulberry tree, in which 

 the original author enters into a variety of practi- 

 cal details on its production and treatment. But 

 the utihty of his precepts is not confined to that 

 particular species of tree. They are most of them 

 equally applicable to nearly all the different kinds 

 of fruit trees ; — and our enhghtened cultivators 



