212 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



As Prof. Turner says, writers have advised various 

 specifics ; one a blue clay, another light, thui soil, 

 &c., and all, like unto Mr. Allen's system of orchard- 

 ing, on a large scale, and laying his orchard down to 

 grass — being only to diminish the annual growth 

 of the tree by lessening the amount of ascending- 

 sap, and thereby producing a short growth of fine, 

 close grain, fully ripened, and capable of enduring 

 the sudden and exciting changes of our western 

 cHmate. " Again, others have shaded the trunks 

 from the hot sun in summer." This I have myself 

 practised, not only in summer, but also in -winter, 

 and have seen the same practised upon trees of 

 twenty years' age, and as Prof. T. remarks, " the 

 remedy has as often failed as it has succeeded." 

 The slitting with a knife was practised by a friend 

 of mine, an amateur in fruit culture, many years 

 since, and without success ; coming at last to the 

 conclusion which impressed the mind of Rev. II. W. 

 Beecher, who, in a few remarks respecting this prac- 

 tice, says, he " should as soon think of slittmg the 

 skin on a boy's leg, or on calves or colts, as a regular 

 part of a plan of rearing them, as to slash the bark 

 of sound and healthy trees." Prof. Turner does not 

 advocate the slitting of the bark, I am aware. Yet I 

 allude to it here, from the fact of having noticed a 

 large number of trees this season most unmercifully 

 slitted and gashed — vertically, horizontally, zigzag, 

 and waved : " Prof. Turner, of Illinois College, ad- 

 vises it, and we thought we would try it." 



Every one who has ever tried it upon trees, knows 

 that by slitting the bark of almost any tree when it 

 is in vigorous growth, it will immediately expand, as 

 tliough it had been compressed by a bandage. Arti- 

 ficial channels so produced are, however, soon filled 

 up by new granulations or layers of bark, and of 

 course as much " bark bound " as before the oper- 

 ation. 



Prof. Turner would strip the entire outer corticle 

 from the tree, and by tliis, check the accumulation 

 of sap to the gorging of the vessels of the trunk as 

 dead matter. This, I believe, is the practice as ad- 

 vised by him to be pursued. Prof. T. remarks that 

 this dead matter accumulates vipon " the southern 

 side of the tree, to bo frozen and torn off by the 

 frosts of winter." The word southern, I presume, is 

 placed rather to designate the side of the tree upon 

 which the "dead matter" is most generally sup- 

 posed to be found, than as decisive of the otily side 

 upon which the tree is affected. 



But to my own observations and belief. And first, 

 the bursting of the bark is not confined alone to the 

 cherry, but may be found upon the apple, pear, 

 peach, and Unden-trce ; possibly uj^on others, but 

 not to my knowledge. The same exudation of sap 

 or gummy matter does not follow such bursting, ex- 

 cept in the x^cach. This bursting is also as rarely 

 found upon trees of the common Hazard or the 

 Kentish as upon the apple and pear ; and therefore 

 the trunks of these varieties are naturally as healthy 

 and little subject to this bursting of the bark as other 

 si)ecies. 



To satisfy myself of this, I have examined num- 

 bers of large trees of Hazards, both growing upon 

 the richest of clay loam soil, on moderate soil, and 

 upon a sandy loam ; and also have examined the 

 trunks of large trees, the tops of which are yearly 

 producing the Black Heart, White Heart, BigaiToau, 

 &c. Hany that I have seen were grafted or budded 

 at about one half the distance up the trunk, leaving 

 one half the trunk Hazard, and the other of the 

 budded variety. In all cases, I have found the Haz- 

 ards the most free fi-om any bursting of the bark. 

 The rage with purchasers of trees to procure " large, 

 straight, and thrifty trees," has doubtless been an 

 incitement to nurserymen to prepare the soil in 

 "which they are growing trees for sale, so that they 



could produce a growth of from eight to eleven feet 

 in a season ; and this urging of the soil too often 

 aided by the strong roots of an old sucker, rather 

 than the fibres of a young seedling. Those trees, so 

 produced, cannot have wood as firm and close as is 

 natural to the cherry, because the growth is bevond 

 its natural habit. 



The trees, therefore, are not as capable of enduring 

 our sudden changes of climate as they would be 

 were they grown only about three and a half to four 

 feet the first season — forming a close, fine grained 

 wood, well ripened. That a close grained, well 

 ripened Avood endures our climate best, is allowed by 

 all ; and is proved by a notice of such trees as the 

 Elm, Haple, and Seckel, or most natural pear- trees, 

 contrasted -with the Ailanthus, Willow, and many 

 other rapid growing varieties. 



That peeling the outer corticle of a tree entire may 

 not produce a healthy plant out of one diseased from 

 its birth, I do not assert ; but as yet I am not in- 

 clined to such belief. I regard the tree so diseased 

 from its infancy that if left to continue where first 

 grown, or transplanted to even a richer or poorer soil, 

 six years — nay, often two years will not have passed 

 without the evidence of over-feeding in youth show- 

 ing itself, by bursting of the sap vessels and exuda- 

 tion of its sap ; this as often upon the north side of 

 the tree as upon the south, caused not directly by 

 the hot sun, but mainly from the coarse, spongy 

 nature and early habit of the tree, easily acted upon 

 by sudden changes of temperatm-e. 



If we advance the idea that some A'arieties are 

 more hardy than others, that some wdl endure our 

 climate when others will not, we should certainly 

 attempt to build our support upon the evidence given 

 by such trees as were of close grained wood, and 

 moderate growers from the first. These may be 

 found in the Dukes and Horellos ; the Belle dc 

 Choisy and May Duke being rarelj' complained of 

 as affected by the bursting of the sap, although of 

 late I have heard of two instances of the latter 

 variet}-, both, however, traced to the fact of being 

 upon sucker stocks, and having been excessively 

 stimulated during their first year's growth, afterwards 

 in good strong soil. 



The "fire-blight," or "frozen sap-blight," in the 

 pear, is rarely found in the Doyenne or Seckel, but 

 often upon the Bartlett and Duchess d' Angouleme ; 

 and it is argued by writers to be induced from the 

 rapid growth and spongy texture of wood in the 

 latter varieties. So, why not this bursting of the 

 bark in the cherry be attributed to the same cause ? 



The pear, in " frozen sap-bUght," does not exude 

 a gum, because such is not its nature ; but its black- 

 ened appearance upon the body often coincides with 

 that upon the cherry, and have by the writer been 

 removed in the same way. 



To support my own views of the necessity of trees 

 being not too much stimulated in early growth, I 

 have examined in others' grounds, and have those in 

 my own grounds — those that Avcre grown slowly, 

 say not over four feet the first season, in close prox- 

 imity to others that were grown some eight feet the 

 first year from bud. The result as yet has been, that 

 while, of the trees grown slowly at first, as many 

 are. of the rapid growing varieties, as among those 

 grown rapidly the first year ; yet those of early slow 

 growth have hardly shown any exhibition of bark 

 bursting, while the others have abounded yearly in 

 blackened spots, and bursting bark, and when cured 

 in one place upon the body, has shown itself in 

 others, and at last among the larger Umbs. 



That peeling the outer corticle entire may not aid 

 the tree for a time when so diseased, I may not now 

 say ; but that it wiU promote it from a sickly to a 

 healthy tree, I doubt. And if it will aid or resusci- 

 tate the cherry, why will it not the pear ? 



