328 THE NEW GARDENING 



Spray the tree on three separate occasions : 



(1) When the leaves are unfolding. 



(2) When the petals fall. 



(3) A fortnight after the fall of the flowers. 



But if the trees are sprayed with a combined wash as 

 advised towards the end of winter it will not be found 

 necessary, as a rule, to bring special remedies into play 

 for particular enemies. 



There is, however, one great fungoid enemy of fruit 

 trees to which individual attention will have to be given, 

 and that is canker. Nor h'me-sulphur, nor lime-salt, nor 

 arsenate-Bordeaux, nor any other combination or 

 specific spray will prevent this disease from attacking 

 fruit trees if the conditions of growth are unfavourable. 

 Unfortunately the conditions which are favourable to 

 one variety may be unfavourable to another, and the 

 question of canker becomes a perplexing one. 



If a fruit-grower has to complain of a general attack 

 of canker on his trees, affecting the majority of his 

 varieties, he may suspect poverty of soil or cold, damp 

 earth round the roots. Want of fertility and water- 

 logged soil render canker chronic. Clearly no amount 

 of spraying can remedy these evils. They have to be 

 combated in a different way. 



Fruit-growers are fully alive to the dangers of a low, 

 damp site and rarely choose it for fruit. They prefer to 

 plant on a gentle slope, from which the under-water will 

 gradually drain away. When planting perforce on a low 

 site they drain the ground with pipes. The cost of this 

 operation is not inconsiderable, but it is less than the loss 

 entailed by the wholesale failure of trees through canker. 



But canker may cause great destruction among trees 

 on a well-drained site, especially if the soil is shallow 

 and dry. 



