168 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ February 28, 1884. 
commend the project, as likely to foster and encourage the spread of the 
knowledge of scientific forestry, and Her Majesty’s principal Secretaries 
of State have acccorded to it their hearty recognition and support. The 
Commissioners of Woods, the War Department, and the India Office 
propose to be exhibitors, and a consignment of colonial timber has already 
been forwarded from the Royal Gardens, Kew. As usual in such under¬ 
takings, a guarantee fund, which at the present date amounts to over 
£6000, has been started to insure the promoters against loss. The 
Executive Committee consists of the Marquis of Lothian, K.T., Presi¬ 
dent ; Sir James Gibson-Craig, Bart, Vice-President; the Lord Provost 
of Edinburgh ; Mr. Hutchison of Carlowrie ; Dr. Cleghorn of Stravithie ; 
Mr. Murray of the Challenge expedition ; Mr. Skinner, City Clerk ; 
Mr. F. N. Menzies, Secretary of the Highland Society ; Mr. Dunn, Dal¬ 
keith Gardens ; Mr. Methven, nurseryman ; Mr. Park, engineer ; Mr. 
Wenley, Bank of Scotland. Of these gentlemen, Messrs. Hutchison, 
Menzies, Cleghorn, and Skinner act as Honorary Secretaries ; Mr. Wenley 
as Honorary Treasurer; and Mr. Cadell, formerly in the Indian Forest 
Department, has been appointed Secretary. The Offices are at 3, 
George IV. Bridge, Edinburgh. 
EOSE MAEECHAL NIEL. 
This superb Eose is well worthy of the extended cultivation 
which it receives, and with the exception, perhaps, of the good 
old G-loire I know of none that so well repays the efforts of the 
cultivator, its great drawback being the shortness of its display 
of flowers, but during the flowering period I know nothing to 
equal it in beauty. I know a knotty cracked old specimen that 
last year yielded over a thousand flowers, and that with little 
trouble. Where the plant obtains its nourishment is somewhat 
of a mystery, as it is growing in an 8-inch pot plunged in a 
border about 2 feet wide, and none of its roots have been observed 
in the border outside the pot. If they have gone down perpen¬ 
dicularly after leaving the pot they must have found a rich 
feeding ground somewhere. It is budded on the Briar about 
3 feet above the ground. This Rose well repays for cultivation in 
pots for early forcing, and that cultivation is remarkably easy. 
Whatever may be the case with some Roses this Rose grows and 
flowers as well on its own as on foster roots, and strikes as freely 
as a Pelargonium. Cuttings, which may be had in plenty as 
the plant ceases flowering, are best inserted singly in thumb 
pots, using good sandy soil and leaf mould or Mushroom-bed 
refuse. Place them quickly in a propagating frame in good 
heat. Bottom heat may be an advantage: it is not indispen¬ 
sable, and they will root in a month or five weeks, or some in 
less. I have had some rooted in three weeks, and others of the 
same batch have taken twice that time. When rooted they are 
taken out of the frame and transferred into 4^-inch pots as the 
small pots become full of roots; and here I may say that if any 
do not grow freely at this stage they had better be thrown away, 
as time spent in coddling a weakly plant is wasted. Employ a 
compost of sound loam with sand and decomposed manure. 
From the 4^-inch pots they may be transferred into 7-inch, 
using a good compost, and in these they may be allowed to 
remain till after flowering. 
Our plants are kept in heat trained up the back wall of a 
lean-to Cucumber house till the roots have taken to the soil in 
the larger pots, when they are removed to the greenhouse and 
trained up the rafters, and with careful attention grow to the 
length of 9 or 10 feet by autumn, and after being rested and 
nailed to a south wall they can be readily forced. If bent down 
in the same way as young Vines every bud will start. After 
flowering they may be transferred to larger pots 10 or 12 inches 
in diameter, and in these they will grow well for several seasons 
if judiciously fed after the pots are full of roots. I have a large 
plant which has grown nearly three years in a tub that holds 
little more than a cubic foot of soil, and for the last twelve 
months or more this tub has been crammed with roots ; yet the 
plant made several shoots last season varying in length fi’om 
5 to 10 feet and stout in proportion, beside a host of others of 
less dimensions, but all useful for producing flowers. All the 
assistance this plant had was a potful of weak liquid manure 
once a week. 
This Rose does not seem difficult to suit in the matter of 
soil. Two of the most vigorous young plants I ever saw are 
growing in widely different composts. One is growing in a tub 
about 2 feet square by 1 foot deep, and was planted in sods 
reshly cut; the other is growing in mixture of clay and decayed 
garden refuse. Both are on their own roots and about the same 
age, and there is little to choose between them. I think that 
plants on own roots are nearly as liable to crack as worked 
plants. I know two valuable specimens that commenced to 
crack in the main stem about 3 feet above ground. As scon 
as the crack was observed a box supported on stakes was placed 
round it and filled with good soil. Roots soon began to appear 
at the cracked part of the stem, and when the box was full the 
main stem was severed and the whole plant lowered till the box 
rested on the ground, when it was knocked away from the ball, 
which was planted in good soil, and the plant soon grew away as 
freely as ever. If the crack is situated so that boxing cannot 
be done, and the stem below is bare of shoots, a few buds may be 
inserted, and when they have taken the stem may be cut below 
the crack, which will cause them to start, and if the root is 
sound a good plant will soon be had. If there is a healthy 
young shoot below the crack it might be inarched into the stem 
above the faulty part, and a supply of sap again established. 
This mode of renewing the cracked stem of a fruit tree is 
successful, and I see no reason why it should not be applied to 
the Rose, but I have not tried it. 
Some growers prune this Rose severely after flowering, some 
going to the length of cutting all gi’owth back to three or four 
buds from the main stems. By this method strong growths are 
obtained, but the flowering capacity is lessened, as flowers are 
freely produced on the shorter growths which spring from last 
year’s wood. I believe the only pruning needed is thinning out 
the weak growths as the plant becomes crowded. Bending 
down the strong growths as much as possible when growth has 
ceased for the season has the effect of causing every bud to 
break into flower in the coming spring, and also of sending 
strong growths out from the base of last year’s wood, thus 
securing all the advantages of close pruning without its atten¬ 
dant sacrifice of valuable flowering wood. I believe it is neces¬ 
sary to bend down the wood early in winter, as I have never had 
such a regular break when it has been deferred till growth has 
nearly begun.—T. A. B. 
FRUIT-TREE CANKER AND ITS CAUSES. 
I suspect that very few practical gardeners will accept the dictum 
of Mr. Hiam, on page 132, that the insects he found in the cankered 
portions of the Apple trees were the cause of the canker. There can be 
no doubt of the presence of the insects. They are found in all decaying 
vegetable matter quite regardless of the cause of its decay. One of the 
worst examples of canker I ever had to contend with was a Haw- 
thornden Apple tree, not very old, but a very favourite specimen. This 
tree was also attacked with American blight, and was regularly dressed 
with Gishurst compound, and eventually with methylated spirits, until 
the insects were killed; but still the cankering of the branches continued 
on the old and young wood alike. The tree was taken up and replanted 
in good soil and the roots kept near the surface, the result of which was 
better growth and good fruit ; but very severe winters following, the 
thermometer registering below zero, the canker became as bad as 
ever. In this case I am convinced the frost destroyed the tissue of the 
wood, and the inevitable result was gangrened branches. After the 
severe winters of three or four years ago I observed thousands of cases 
of canker on Apple trees that were previously free ; and I am obliged to 
believe that if insects caused the canker they were brought by the 
severity of the winters. Does anyone believe that such was the case ?— 
A Yorkshire Gardener. 
With regard to the notes published on page 132, tending to show 
that canker is due to insect agency, I have an impression that soil has, 
if not everything, at least very much to do with this annoying disease. 
I have it appearing on Apple trees less than two years from the bud, and 
young trees three to five years old are in some kinds subject to a form of 
canker that destroys them entirely. This is different from the canker 
attacking aged trees. I am inclined to believe that were we to keep the 
soil firm and the roots near to the surface we would hear less of canker. 
Then wet and frost has a tendency to bring on, or at least to exaggerate 
the disease, as we have found from the past severe season. As to Apricots, 
Mr. Crossling wrote of the larvae of the Apple Clearwing destroying the 
branches of these. I have found the caterpillar at work in autumn, but 
am impressed with the belief that their feeding ground is in the already 
dead portion of the stem. At the present time I have been destroying 
caterpillars working between the dead bark and the cankered wood of 
the Apricot. Woodlice are quite commonly found in the same quarters. 
The form of Apricot canker which destroys large branches has done its 
work before the damage is apparent. Another form of the disease cuts 
off strong-growing branches, this through the rupture of the sap vessels. 
Cold easterly winds and hot days intervening I am afraid mean some¬ 
thing not to the benefit of Apricots. I have been so impressed with the 
advantages of keeping the soil firm for fruit culture, that neither Currant, 
Raspberry, nor Gooseberry quarters are now being dug here. I intend to 
try Apples under the same conditions.—R. P. B. 
Reading Mr. Hiam’s notes on the above subject in the Journal 
of the 14th of February, I should like to add a few words. I 
have tried to ascertain the cause of canker, and failed so far, our 
trees suffering much from it in this district. Undrained soil is not the 
