966 PRACTICE OF GARDENING. PART III. 



in manufacturing gas. It is, however, less favorable to the progress of the bark over 

 the wound than a coating of clay or cow-dung, covered with moss to keep it moist. 

 Pontey recommends putty and two coats of paint over it. In case the wood, at a bruised 

 or amputated place, have by neglect become already corrupted, the rotten or dead wood 

 is to be pared out quite into the quick ; and the wound is then to be dressed with tar, or 

 clay covered with a piece of mat, sacking, or moss. A wound, hollowed out as above, 

 may at first appear an unsightly blemish ; but, in subsequent years, nature will lay the 

 coats of wood, under the new-formed bark, thicker at that place ; and probably may, in 

 time, fill it up to be even with the general surface of the tree. 



6926. All fractures, by whatever means produced, are to be managed as the circumstances of the case 

 require. If a large branch be broken over at the middle of its length, it should be sawn clear off close by 

 the lateral which is nearest to the bole of the tree : but, if there is no lateral, or branch, capable to carry 

 forward the growth, cut the main or fractured branch in quite to the bole. In both cases, treat the 

 wounds as above recommended. 



6927. Interior rotting, arising from the dampness of the soil, cannot by the art of man be cured ; 

 though it might have been prevented by timeous draining. The hearts of trees frequently rot, where there 

 is no excess of moisture, and especially such as have been produced from old roots left in the ground by 

 a previous felling. Such roots, when in good ground, send up very great shoots with few leaves in pro- 

 portion to their sizes ; by the absence of a profusion of these, properly to concoct the juices so abundantly 

 supplied by the roots, the fibre of the wood is loose and imperfect ; the next season will supply more leaves 

 in proportion to the supply of juices, yet not a sufficient number for making perfect timber ; several years 

 may pass before this event arrive : thus crude and ill digested timber disposed to premature decay, is the 

 foundation over which subsequent coatings of wood are laid : yet, however perfect these may be, they do 

 not prevent the progress of decomposition going on in the interior. Nature teaches how necessary nume- 

 rous leaves are to the proportion of the solid wood ; the cotyledons and subsequent leaves of a one-year- 

 old tree are a thousand times greater, compared to its solid contents, than are the leaves to the solid "con- 

 tents of the first year's shoots from roots like the above. 



6928. Shakes often arise from the weight and multiplicity of top branches, and might have been pre- 

 vented by timeous pruning. Shakes or rents in the boles of trees, however, often happen where there is 

 no excess of tops. Sometimes the rain running down from the branches, wets one part of the bole, while 

 the rest is comparatively dry. If this circumstance is succeeded by an intense frost, before the wetted 

 side becomes dry, the bole maybe rent for a great length, and perhaps to the depth of the core. Shakes 

 or rents, like the above, are difficult to cure. The best method of helping them, is to trace out their up- 

 per extremity, caulk it up with oakum, and pitch it over, to prevent the rain descending that way in 

 future. (Sang.) 



6929. In cases of holloumess, Pontey recommends probing to the bottom, letting out the water, if any, 

 with an auger, drying the cavity with a cloth, filling it with dry sand, plugging it with wood and oakum, 

 and then painting it over. 



6930. Dicorticated stems or branches by lightning, or otherwise, if the soft wood is not much injured, 

 will heal over and become covered with bark ; and this the more certainly and rapidly if the air be ex- 

 cluded by a coating of adhesive matter, as cow-clung and quick-lime, or tying on moss or bandages of 

 mat or cloth. Pontey gives an instance in which such treatment was successful in the case of an apple- 

 tree. (Pruner, 230.) We have witnessed it on an extensive scale on the trunk of a pear-tree ; and we 

 are informed, on the best authority, of other cases now under progress, in the government garden of the 

 Luxembourg at Paris, as matter of experiment, by Du Thuars, a most ingenious physiologist 



6931. Withered or decayed tops may arise from age and incipient decay ; but also, as Pontey states, 

 from improper pruning, or the want of it. We often see it from improper pruning of elms, which, after 

 having been close pruned to their summits for many years, are left entirely to nature; in that case they 

 branch out luxuriantly below, and the top withers. By neglecting to thin out the branches on the stems 

 of non-resinous trees, the same effect may be produced. 



6932. Stinted bushy tops show a deficiency of nourishment; on very tall naked stems it is from these 

 circumstances; and on short stems from defects in the soil. Obliquely placed misshapen heads, in de- 

 tached trees, commonly proceed from the same causes and want of shelter. Stinted growth, both in tops 

 and stems, is also produced by ivy, and by lichens, mosses, the mistletoe, and other parasites. Ivy com- 

 presses the bark, precludes its expansion, as well as excludes air and moisture, by which the outer bark 

 becomes rigid and corky. Happily, both men and trees will live a long time under the influence both of 

 deformity and disease. 



6933. Excessive exudations of gum and resins are peculiar to resinous and some other trees when over- 

 pruned, or pruned at improper times. Mildew, honeydew, and blight, three popular names applied to 

 the effects of certain insects of the aphis kind, attack the oak, beech, poplar, and many trees: all that 

 can be said is, if proper regimen has been regularly attended to, trees will overcome these and all other 

 enemies. 



6934. Insects and vermin. Almost every tree has its particular insect of the hemipterous and dipterous 

 families, and many of the coleoptera family are common to all. The foliage of the small-leaved elm of 

 hedges is often almost entirely destroyed in the early part of the season by tenthredinidse ; and those of 

 the larch and Scotch pine have suffered materially in some seasons from aphides. The Aphis laricea, L. 

 (Eriosomata of Leach) increased to an alarming extent from 1800 to 1802, on the larch, on account of 

 three dry seasons following each other; but, though it retarded their growth, it ultimately destroyed 

 very few trees. Sang says he has known it since 1785 ; that it dirties more than injures the tree, and is 

 now (1819) thought little of. Indeed, almost every species of tree has been known to have suffered in 

 some one or more seasons, and in particular districts from insects; for which, on so large a scale, there 

 seems to be no applicable remedy but patiently waiting till their excess, or the increase of other vermin, 

 their natural enemies, or a change of seasons, cause them to disappear. Trees, properly cultivated and 

 managed, generally overcome such enemies. The hare is well known to be very injurious to young trees, 

 and especially to laburnums, by gnawing off their bark. Coating their stems with dung and urine, fresh 

 from the cow-house, is said to be an effectual remedy. It may be put on with, a brush about two feet 

 high ; a barrow-load will suffice for a hundred trees, with stems of three or four inches in diameter ; and 

 its virtue, after laid on, endures at least two years. (Bull, in Caled. Hort. Mem. iv. 190.) 



