"Remm-lcs on Rogers's " Fruit Cultivator." 181 



the place of that name, in Shropshire, near to which it was 

 raised. 



Another very important character in the work is the attention 

 that is wished to be directed to the sort of stock, the kind of 

 soil, or the situation and oth^* peculiarities of treatment which 

 certain species or varieties require. This renders it of practical 

 value ; and fruit growers would do well to follow up such ob- 

 servations in regard to the peculiarities of treatment of the va- 

 rious sorts they may possess, and of which no particular notice 

 in this respect has been hitherto taken. 



The following parts of Mr. Rogers's work appear to me well 

 worth the attention of the practical gardener. 



" Canker. — This seems to be a constitutional disease, and to arise from a 

 defect in the organisation, occasioned by impure qualities taken in by the root 

 from an ungenial subsoil." (p. 117.) 



Strictly speaking, a disease cannot be entirely " constitutional " 

 when it is " occasioned by impure qualities taken in by the root 

 from an ungenial subsoil." This may be a cause ; and more 

 especially so in combination with something ungenial in the 

 season, acting on the peculiar disposition of the sort in regard to 

 its developement in the early part of the summer. Every one 

 knows that immature buds, on a basis of badly ripened wood, 

 suffer most from spring frosts. One species of canker, in par- 

 ticular, in apple trees, will be observed to originate where a sort 

 of spurs protrude from wood of some years' growth, which tend 

 to assume the form of fruit spurs, but which perish in inclement 

 springs after the commencement of their vegetation. When 

 affected by frost, they become dead and dried even to their con- 

 nection with the alburnum ; and they remain exsiccators of the 

 sap, or, at all events, they act as stumbling-blocks to its cir- 

 culation. These spurs, it may be farther remarked, partake of 

 the precocity of properly formed fruit spurs ; but the buds on 

 the latter are better protected, and therefore are not so liable to 

 be killed : but, if this should happen, they ramify from an im- 

 mediate connection with the branch, and their pedicel assumes a 

 woody nature, very different from the soft parenchymous sub- 

 stance of which they, at their first protrusion, were composed. 



While practical men are observing on the above, they will 

 perceive that only one species of canker is here alluded to. 

 There are many other kinds, which it is not proposed at present 

 to enter upon. There is a sort, for instance, where the whole 

 bark is infected with morbid blotches, of the cause of which 

 some gardeners may, perhaps, be better able to satisfy them- 

 selves, than he who presumes to offer for consideration the pre- 

 ceding remarks. 



For canker, in general, experience has proved that a partial 

 remedy will be found in draining the subsoil or otherwise im- 



o 3 





