Root-Pruning and Canker in Fruit Trees. 309 



constructed like a small cone-shaped limekiln, with perforations 

 all round, to be opened or closed as the process may require, 

 and he assures me that carbonised peat, when well done, is 

 equal to the best wood charcoal. He sells his peat at 12 francs 

 (Swiss) the char-load, equal to 90 square ft. There are about 

 9 logs of peat to the square foot. I brought away some speci- 

 mens of his charcoal ; but, as it was the production of his early 

 essays, he was unwilling to have it considered a proper sample 

 of the art, but merely the result of a first experiment. He is 

 now building a proper kiln, and in a month will have peat char- 

 coal for sale. The details of this mode of carbonising peat are 

 to be met with, I believe, in the Annates de la Chimie, but I 

 have unfortunately lost the reference to the exact number. After 

 viewing M. Weobel's enterprising operations, 1 called to mind 

 the endeavours of a friend of mine in Argyleshire to float away 

 into the sea, as mere waste matter, a moss of a thousand acres, 

 containing peat of a superior quality to a depth of 16 ft. Were 

 it possible to convert it into charcoal, so as to become portable 

 and vendible, what a reservoir of fuel is in store for future ages ! 

 I have given away my best specimens of M. Weobel's char- 

 coal; the last, and I fear the worst, accompanies this note. Such 

 as it is I will beg your acceptance of it, as offering an example 

 of the experiment. — Surrey >, April, 1842. 



Art. VII. On Root-Pruning and Canker in Fruit Trees. By N. M.T. 



Root-pruning of, and canker in, fruit trees have lately en- 

 grossed a good deal of attention in contemporary publications, 

 and it is because I think the former the most likely cure for the 

 latter, that I mention them in the same sentence ; and that men- 

 tion is not made with the intention of reviewing any thing that 

 has been said upon these subjects, but simply to state a few 

 remarks that the reading of what has been urged, and my own 

 observations, have suggested. A tree properly sown or planted, 

 and left to its own resources, is as truly a natural object as can 

 be imagined, and in such a state sets in earnest about finding 

 the means of supporting itself, and prolonging, if possible, a 

 healthy existence; and it generally succeeds in so desirable an 

 object, in proportion as these efforts are unassisted, uncontrolled, 

 and untampered with. 



When all is left to nature and her proceedings unmolested by 

 the intermeddling hand of artifice, when every fibre remains 

 undisturbed, every leaf allowed to develope itself, and add by 

 its caterings to the general stock, we may conclude that the 

 justest proportion is naturally maintained between these organs ; 

 and in proportion as this equilibrium is deranged, so the ten- 



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