November 23, 1372. ] 



JOUBNAL OF HOBTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



419 









WEEKLY 



CALENDAR. 















Day 



of 



Month 



Day 

 of 



Week. 





Average Tempera- 



Rain in 



Sun 











Clock 



Day 



NOV. 28— DEC. 4, 1872. 



ture near London. 



43 years. 



Rises. 



Sets. 



Rises. 



Sets. 



Age. 



after 

 Sun. 



of 

 Year. 









Day. Night. Mean. 



Days. 



m. b." m. h. 



m. h. 



m. b. 



Days. 



m. s. 





2S 



Th 





48.1 



33.9 



41.0 



22 



41af7 54af3 



33 4 



50 2 



27 



11 41 



333 



29 



F 



John Bay horn 1628. 



51.3 



33.8 



42.5 



20 



43 7 



53 3 



54 5 



10 3 



28 



11 20 



334 



SO 



S 



St. Andrew. 



48.0 



34.5 



41.3 





44 7 



53 3 



19 7 



38 3 



• 



10 58 



335 



1 



Son 



1 Sttn-tiay tn Advent. 



48.5 



34.9 



41.7 



22 



45 7 



52 8 



43 8 



15 4 



1 



10 35 



336 



2 



M 





47.4 



33.7 



40.5 



19 



47 7 



52 3 



10 



6 5 



2 



10 12 



337 



S 



To 



Entomological Society's Meeting, 7 p.m. 



47.0 



35.8 



41.4 



24 



48 7 



51 3 



2 11 



17 6 



3 



9 48 



338 



4 



W 



Royal Horticultural Society's Fruit, Floral, 

 [and General Meeting. 



48.1 36.4 



42.2 



20 



50 7 



50 3 



50 11 



37 7 



4 



9 23 



339 



From observations taken near London during forty-three years, the average day temperature of the week is 48.3° ; and its night temperature 



34.7°. The greatest heat was 62°, on the 1st, 1857 ; and the lowest cold 14', on the 30th, 1856. The greatest fall of rain was 1.21 inch. 





PREVENTING AMERICAN BLIGHT— SIMPLE 

 MODE OF RAISING APPLE-TREE STOCKS. 



HE horticultural mind in Australia has of 

 late years been much exercised upon the 

 subject of fruit-tree stocks, and especially 

 upon those suited to the Apple. This tree 

 has for many years been the victim of the 

 American blight in its most virulent form, 

 and its culture has been attended with great 

 difficulty : only, indeed, by the most con- 

 stant care and rigid attention has the grower 

 been able to keep his trees clean and healthy, 

 and, as a rule, the more valuable the variety the greater 

 the trouble involved. The older orchards of Victoria 

 frequently present a most disheartening spectacle, the 

 trees being gnarled and knobbed from rootlet to branch- 

 let from the abundance of the aphides. The result has 

 been that planters of late years are careful to avoid those 

 kinds most prone to these attacks, and as a consequence 

 many favourite Apples of English orchards have well- 

 nigh gone out of cultivation. 



The pest is a serious one, even in England with her 

 shorter periods of genial weather, and the severe frosts 

 of winter to keep in it check, but in Victoria it meets with 

 conditions peculiarly favourable to its development and 

 rapid diffusion. The winters are so mild as to seldom 

 necessitate the retirement of the aphides from the branches 

 to the roots, and on not more than two or three days 

 during summer are the winds sufficiently hot to destroy 

 the insects. The hot north winds sometimes attain the 

 exceptional temperature of 140°, and these may, perhaps, 

 be regarded as the most effective remedy for the blight ; 

 the misfortune, however, being that the blast is equaUy 

 destructive to the season's crop, and a few weeks serve 

 but to cover the trees again with the insects, a stock of 

 which is always to be found at the roots of the trees. 



It will be seen, then, that it becomes a matter of mo- 

 mentous interest to secure varieties not hable to blight, 

 and to procure these varieties worked upon stocks equally 

 robust and free from such liability; for it is of little 

 use having healthy heads to the trees if the roots are 

 a mass of corruption. The Apple tree became, then, a 

 matter of special study by a few good cultivators in 

 Victoria, prominent among whom was Mr. Thomas Lang. 

 This gentleman, seeing the perfect immunity from blight 

 which the Winter Majeting enjoyed, thought this variety 

 might be propagated largely for stock purposes, and for 

 many years by every method possible he raised thousands 

 of these, and worked the general run of varieties upon 

 them. This experiment and its fair promise of success 

 {so far as keeping the roots clean and healthy), led others 

 to enter upon the study, and the gardens of the Horti- 

 cultural Society of Victoria afforded a ready means of 

 determ inin g the varieties suited for experiment. Of the 

 many hundreds of varieties in the Society's collection 

 not more than ten or twelve were found proof against 

 the attacks of the Aphis lanigera. Of these, Northern 

 Spy, Majeting, Early Crofton, New England Pigeon, 



No. 609.— Vol. XXILL, New Sekies. 



Charleston Pippin, and Subbart's Codlin were absolutely 

 free ; while Court-Pendu-Plat, Gravenstein, Duchess of 

 Oldenburg, and Isle of Wight Pippin were so slightly 

 affected as to be deemed worthy of a place in the " ex- 

 empt list." All these varieties have been extensively 

 propagated at the Society's gardens ; but the difficulty 

 presenting itself was that of being able to secure them 

 upon their own roots, free from all trace of even a rootlet 

 hable to blight. For some time this was managed by 

 layering old plants, and so inducing them to form roots, 

 which at the grafting season were taken up, cut into 

 slips, and the non-blighting varieties grafted thereon. 

 This was a slow process, and altogether inadequate to 

 meet the requirements of the case, for the public rapidly 

 took up the idea, and tvere loud in their demand for trees 

 upon non-blighting stocks. The attempt to 

 grow stocks from cuttings proved an utter 

 failure ; they rooted feebly, and died off with 

 the first trying hot day, or, at best, made but 

 weakly plants, quite unsuitable to serve as 

 stocks for healthy trees. 



Things were in this state when the follow- 

 ing plan was adopted at the gardens of the 

 Horticultural Society of Victoria ; and as the 

 experience there gained may be of use to 

 English growers, it may be interesting to de- 

 scribe it in detail. 



The object sought was a supply of roots of 

 non-blighting varieties, and in sufficient quan- 

 tities to enable the grower to utilise every 

 scion of a valuable tree. The shoots of the 

 past season's growth are taken and made into 

 cuttings in the usual way, of about 6 inches 

 in length, with four or more buds on the cut- 

 ting. An upward cut is made, as shown in 



Fig. 2. Fig. l. 



Fig. 1. — Small portion of fibrous root prepared for insertion in the cutting. 



Fig. 2. — Cutting of Apple shoot of last season's growth, with an upward cut, 

 a, indicating the point for insertion of root slip. The lower buds are to- 

 be cut or rubbed off as is customary. 



fig. 2, in the side of the cutting, about an inch or two 



No. 1261.-VOE. XLVIII , Old Series. 



