Octobeb -l'i, 1888.] 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



471 



which become brown and ultimately drop, causing 

 the trees to become unhealthy. The fruit was 

 affected with the fungus which causes cracking, 

 were very much split, and entirely useless. The 

 slugworms under notice attack most of the fruit 

 trees belonging to the natural order Rosacea:. 

 They may be destroyed with Hellebore powder mixed 

 with water, and applied through the rose of a 

 watering-pot. As they hibernate in the first o or 4 

 inches of soil, that depth should be taken oft' and 

 burnt. Both grubs and flies are extremely sluggish, 

 and the latter may be shaken dow 7 n on a white cloth 

 and removed. 



Birds. 

 The feathered enemies are more easy to deal with 

 than any of the above ; but, with the exception of 

 the bullfinch and the sparrow, I would not advise 

 the shooting of them. Even the latter has much 

 to recommend him to mercy. If the birds are killed 

 wholesale we destroy the balance of Nature, and 

 get afflicted with a plague of insects far more 

 difficult or impossible to exterminate. The gun 

 should be employed during the ripening of the fruit 

 to scare, not to kill. The warning cry has been 

 heard from many an orchard in Kent during the 

 past summer. Of the larger animals, rabbits and 

 hares are the most destructive during severe weather. 

 They soon destroy an orchard by barking the young 

 trees. To prevent injury, protect the stems of the 

 trees with branches of Blackthorn or Furze : but the 



spot in the centre, surrounded by a white line, and 

 that again by a black border. The Pear is attacked 

 in the same way by a variety of Cladosporium den- 

 driticum, generally known amongst fungologists 

 under the name of Fusicladium pyrinum. Xo 

 remedy is known, and means to prevent its spreading 

 must be adopted by destroying badly affected trees 

 and fruits. Here, again, good cultivation greatly 



f'Li: mi>.ii. 



tends to palliate the evil by encouraging a healthy, 

 vigorous growth of the trees. Marie Louise and 

 Louise Bonne of Jersey Pears are very subject to it, 

 and should not be planted in places infested with the 

 disease. 



FlO. 66.— MILDEW OS APPLES. 



destructive on the Continent. Hand-picking the 

 leaves as the spots make their appearance, and 

 before the spores are shed, is the only remedy, and 

 no Juniper bushes should be allowed to grow near 

 them. On a large scale it is more profitable to 

 uproot badly-affected specimens, and plant afresh. 



Mistleto in this country is the only chlorophyll 

 bearing parasite that need be noticed. It is very 

 injurious to orchards in Herefordshire from its great 

 prevalence, and prevents the branches infested by it 

 from thickening properly below the union of the 

 parasite with them, ultimately causing the trees to 

 become stunted and unproductive. Cut down the 

 Mistleto about Christmas, when a market will be 

 found for it to defray the expenses of the operation. 



Epiphytes, such as lichens and mosses, can be 

 removed by scraping or scrubbing the bark of the 

 trees, or they may be destroyed by sulphuric acid 

 much diluted in water. The evil is but half remedied, 

 however, and the lichens will soon grow again unless 

 measures are taken to remove the cause by draining 

 or otherwise ameliorating the land, as the" case may 

 require, and so induce a healthy, vigorous growth, 

 thereby enabling the trees to thrive, increase in 

 thickness, and throw off the old bark. 



THURSDAYS DISCUSSION. 

 Mb. Tones' Paper. (See ante, v. 440. 



Mr. Coleman asked if lime was used in a caustic 

 state ? 



Mr. Tones replied that it was generally used as 

 gypsum, but all lime would answer the same purpose. 



Mr. Kot-PELL said he had U6ed lime freelv in com- 



Fl<j. 67.— CLADOSPORIUM ON ATO':, 



most sure and effective plan is to use a guard of wire 

 netting. Tar, grease and oils, should not be employed, 

 as they are injurious by stopping up the air passages 

 in the bark. 



Vegetable Enemies. 



These are of two kinds, namely, parasites and 

 epiphytes. The former are the most to be dreaded, 

 since they attack and destroy the living tissues of 

 the host plants by feeding on their substance. Para- 

 sites may again be divided into those of a fungoid 

 nature and those that are green. 



Mildew i fig. 66) affecting the Apple is a white 

 mould belonging to the family Erysiphacere, and in 

 this, the early stage, it is referred to the genus Oidium. 

 It is one of the most easily destroyed of parasitic 

 fungi, from the fact that it lives on the surface and 

 does not penetrate its host. Sulphur alone, or 

 various preparations containing sulphur, will com- 

 pletely destroy the fungus. Should a large number 

 of trees in a garden or orchard become affected, the 

 application of sulphur would be a tedious and costly 

 operation ; but if a few isolated trees onlv are 

 attacked the remedy is more easily applicable. 



Cracking is caused by Cladosporium dendriticum 

 I tig. 67), a too widely prevalent fungus, that grows on 

 the leaves, young shoots, and flowers of the Apple, 

 often preventing the formation of fruit. In severe 

 cases the latter becomes partially or completely 

 covered with blotches, crippling and preventing it 

 from attaining full size, and in all cases the fungus 

 reduces the market value of the produce by disfi- 

 guring or causing it to crack. The disease com- 

 mences as black spots, branching from the centre 

 like a small tree, while on fruit the patches soon 

 become irregularly rounded, with a depressed black 



Bust on the Pear is caused by Ecestelia cancellata, 

 as well as some other parasitic fungi. The Bcestelia 

 produces rugged swellings on the leaves, the blotches 

 finally becoming red, and showing themselves on 

 both surfaces of the leaves attacked. It is believed 



y ^i^s 



to be an early stage of Gymnosporangium Sabin.T, 

 which completes its life cycle on Juniperus Sabina. 

 As in the rust of Wheat, there is an alternation" of 

 generations on different host plants, and described 

 as heteroicism. It is not common in England ; is 

 not, I believe, recorded from Scotland ; but is very 



bination with soot, which he had found gave red 

 Apples a more intense hue, and a darker colour to 

 green Apples, generally improving and benefiting 

 the trees. Did Mr. Tonks positively deny the pos- 

 sibility of canker being introduced to the healthy 

 tree through a wound of any kind, or, did he hold 

 the opinion that a healthy tree, being strong, resisted 

 the disease '! From his own knowledge of surgery he 

 was aware of the great analogy between the animal 

 and the vegetable world. They all knew that a 

 wound exposed to the atmosphere was liable to be 

 affected by various germs floating about, and one 

 great aim was to prevent the atmosphere having 

 access to the wound. Wounds inflicted upon the 

 bark of trees by any cause were likely to produce 

 canker, but it made little progress in healthy trees, 

 while trees unhealthy, through inferior soil or in- 

 sufficient nourishment, succumbed to it. 



Mr. Toxics considered that his paper replied to the 

 matters put forward. He did not believe that 

 canker was in any way due to germs of any sort or 

 description ; nor did he believe that any external 

 injury caused canker. Of course disease might 

 develope in the injured parts. 



Mr. Clark asked how it was canker attacked one 

 sort and not another, when there was only a road- 

 way between the trees '! 



Mr. Tones replied, because food of one variety was 

 quite different from the food required by another 

 variety. Many years ago he had a Citron dee 

 Carmes in his garden, which, after growing fruit for 

 a number of years, he began to notice signs of canker 

 in it. One day he grafted on it a Pitmaston 

 Duchesse. The Citron des Carmes became a 

 miserable object, but the Pitmaston Duchess thrived 

 thoroughly ; showing that roots which would not 



