50 HISTORY OF FRUITS. 



pounded and put on lighted charcoal, has been found a 

 successful fumigation for destroying the blight on apple- 

 trees. The canker of apple-trees, we apprehend, is princi- 

 pally occasioned by the uncongenial quality of the soil. 

 We lately travelled with a gentleman, who informed us, 

 that having observed all his apple-trees become cankered 

 at a certain state of growth, he was induced to examine 

 the nature of the soil at the greatest depth the roots had 

 penetrated, and which he found consisted of gravel. Not 

 being willing to give over the propagation of apple-trees, 

 he caused a pavement of bricks to be made on the bed of 

 gravel, which obliged the roots to take a horizontal direc- 

 tion, and thereby prevented their reaching the gravel, 

 since which they have been free from canker. This seems 

 to have been an ancient practice, as many of the gardens 

 which were formerly attached to the monasteries in this 

 country have been found paved with tiles a few feet be- 

 neath the earth. 



There is an apple-tree now growing on the leads of 

 Romsey Church in Hampshire, which regularly produces 

 two sorts of apples ; and we have gathered nuts from a 

 hazel which grows on the top of the Church steeple at 

 Henfield in Sussex. 



In planting of orchards we attend more to the fruits 

 that please our fancy, than to kinds that are most congenial 

 to our soil and situation ; thus we often see pear-trees un- 

 fruitful where apples might be produced, and vice versa, 

 Columella notices " Apple-bearing Tibur," and Virgil, 

 " Those whom the walls of Apple-bearing Abella look 

 down upon." Indeed throughout 'the writings of these 

 authors we are reminded that particular spots were set 

 apart for particular plants. 



I 



