604 Bicton Gardens, their Culture and Management. 



The same season I noticed many of the standard plums, 

 apples, and pears, expand their blossom very weakly, and it fell 

 off. The leaf and young shoots were curled up and smothered 

 with honey-dew, and varieties of aphis ; the trees on the west 

 walls suffering least. I always found the trees that were most 

 injured were those which were covered with white rime or hoar- 

 frost after much wet, or in moist situations. A dry hard frost 

 does not seem to have any injurious eifect on them; but damp- 

 ness with a severe frost, of course, is the cause of rime or hoar- 

 frost, which causes those spots and blisters on both old and 

 young wood, by raising the bark from the wood, or more pro- 

 perly speaking, causing the moisture the wood contains to ex- 

 pand, and leaving, when the frost is gone, a cavity between the 

 bark and wood of those parts so affected. Of course, the tree 

 that is the most luxuriant and unripe is the greatest sufferer : 

 the young wood looking spotted and gummy ; the old wood 

 having dead spots of great length in some instances, and after a 

 time cracking and oozing out gum ; and those branches which 

 have the bark loosened all round are soon observed to die away. 

 Some others, that are only partly affected, will flourish for 

 several seasons, and bring tolerable fruit. In some instances I 

 have seen the bark that was so affected cut away, and new bark 

 enticed to grow over the wound. I have frequently observed 

 the stem or stock of the tree, in a most healthy state, oozing 

 out gum in great abundance at, or a little above, the place 

 where it had been worked. 



What makes it appear to me the more probable that my own 

 observations are not far from being right is, that you never see 

 a peach or a nectarine tree get the canker in a house that has 

 the borders properly made, that is to say, well drained ; soil 

 not being so much an object as good drainage and a healthy 

 dry bottom ; trees can always be well fed and assisted when 

 they requu'e it. But, if you uncover the house by taking the 

 lights off before the wood is properly ripened, and allow the 

 wood to get frozen, it will not be long before you will see the 

 effects of canker making its appearance ; or, if by chance you 

 leave the top-lights down, to expose the trees of a late house, in 

 a severe frost, you will be certain to see the ill effects of it the 

 next spring and summer. On the other hand, if a tree is 

 bruised in any way, or pruned at an unseasonable time, you will 

 certainly soon see your old complaint, the canker, make its 

 appearance. There is more judgment required in thoroughly 

 ripening the wood, than in ripening the fruit. 



How can it be expected that any fruit-bearing tree, with its 

 wood in a soft unripe state, can produce fruit in perfection ? 

 Is it not a most unreasonable thing for any one to expect? 

 How can any man expect to ripen the wood of either peach or 



