28 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ January 12, 1893. 
climate, soil, and culture are canker-proof. Therefore we are left face 
to face with the fungus which claims 75 per cent, of the trees in some 
orchards and not less than G per cent, of the trees under the best 
cultivation as its victims. 
Inducements of canker on Apple and Pear trees are crowding and 
neglect, sticking them in holes in hard soil and stubborn clay, land 
stagnated with water, arid sand and sterile gravel, a thin crust of soil 
over chalk, titillating the surface instead of breaking up the hard 
impenetrable pan chokeful of iron oxides and corroding acids, rich 
loose soils, low situations, bleak sites, exuberant growth, and improper 
culture or none. Over these the grower has complete control; therefore, 
assuming canker to be a preventible disease, it is the cultivator’s own 
fault if the trees are not free, for it is easy to thin crowded trees, clean 
them, and supply manure. To plant the trees properly in well prepared 
ground drain waterlogged land, avoid sandy gravelly brash (the greedy 
maw of ehalk), break up pans, render loose soils firm, eschew low and 
bleak sites, check exuberance by root-pruning, and practise good cultiva¬ 
tion all round. 
But Nature has to be reckoned with—chills in spring ; frosts in¬ 
juriously affecting the sap vessels ; a wet, cold, late season; sappy 
immature growth liable to damage by severe weather, all aid canker, 
the admittance of the fungus spores into wounds caused by hailstones 
severe frosts, and summer heat. How, then, are we to avoid canker ? 
Every empiric has some panacea. Is canker less prevalent now than 
it was in Shakespeare’s time, when it was referred to in almost all plays 
by the immortal universal tongue 1 Are the orchards of Albion as fair 
and prosperous now as at the middle of the current century 1 I trow 
not. Look around, and almost everywhere may be seen more decrepit 
than flourishing orchards, and markets mainly supplied with cheaper 
and better imported Apples and Pears than the home grower does 
produce. 
Canker has done this. It has, combined with neglect in not planting 
young, clean, healthy trees in fresh properly prepared soil, with a 
suitable site, so as to form an orchard that would produce fruit up to 
the requirements of the time—clean and bright in skin, even in size, 
and of good using qualities, either for dessert or culinary purposes, by 
the period the old orchard trees were worn out. What is the remedy 1 
Half a century’s experience has convinced me that there is practically 
but one cure for canker in old orchards—the destruction and burning of 
the trees branch and root as soon as possible. If the trees are not very 
old and their stems are sound, it may be worth while to cut off their 
heads and regraft them with varieties that are found most free from 
canker, if not entirely so, afford the best crops and bring the most 
money from the salesman. But it is no use getting young healthy 
heads on old orchard trees without providing food in the soil for the 
support of their crops, otherwise the trees will soon cease to bear fruit 
satisfactorily. 
How to cure trees of canker is very simple, indeed as plain as a 
pikestaff—destroy the fungus and all will be well, not otherwise. No 
cultivation whatever will render Apple or Pear trees canker-proof. We 
must do with them as the timber merchant does with that he wants to 
save from “ dry rot ” (or any rot), charge its pores with some substance 
that will prove fatal to any fungus spores that alight upon it. That is 
the physician’s medicine—kill the germs, eliminate the virus from the 
system, and the patient recovers. Empirics oftener miss than hit the 
mark, but the experienced practitioner never fails to afford some relief, 
if not effect a perfect cure. I have tried almost every “ patent ” for 
canker—all worthless, time, labour, good land wasted. The fungus, 
Nectria ditissima, “ laughs up its sleeve ” and prospers, never better 
than at the present time, for, notwithstanding all our assumed supremacy, 
we are, as regards parasitical infestions, far behind our continental 
neighbours and kinsmen in America and at the Antipodes. 
It is no use blinking at canker, there it is—scarcely an orchard free, 
yet nurserymen raise millions of trees, free from speck or blemish, and 
they are planted throughout the length and breadth of the land, where 
they fall prey to canker and neglect. How does the nurseryman keep 
his trees free from canker 1 By the only way, not having a cankered 
tree on the spot. Whenever there is a speck of canker off goes that 
branch and into the fire. I am aware that it is not so in all cases, 
but I have never seen a cankered tree in any of the large nurseries, and 
never have received an infected tree from any. There we see them by 
the million with the current year’s wood as thick in degree from the 
little finger to the thumb without any cankerous affection. Why 1 
Their culture is of the best, land well tilled, judiciously manured, not a 
canker spot allowed to mature the spores of the fungus and infect the 
whole neighbourhood ; but there is not an orchard of a dozen years’ 
growth in which there is not soma canker, and instead of rooting it out 
it is left to its way, and the whole plantation becomes a wreck before 
the trees have arrived at full profit. That is the way to grow fungi, 
not Apples and Pears. It is impossible to grow “ twa ” crops. If 
canker infest a tree the fruit is worthless, for the fungus lives on the 
very substance that is necessary for the support of the Apple and Pear 
and the formation of buds and healthy growths for the production of 
profitable crops. This may be poor consolation for persons with cankered 
orchards, and they will perhaps not thank me for these outspoken remarks. 
No matter ; there are some that are “sick” and need a physician to 
cure their Apple and Pear trees of canker. I will tell them how to do 
it, if assured that the ground is properly sanitated (drained), the situation 
healthy, the dietary generous, and cleanliness strictly regarded. If not, 
these things must be seen to at once, for they are the best safeguard 
against disease, restoration to health, and its preservation. 
Cure for Canker.—1, When any tree shows a canker speck or 
cankered wound, cut it off and burn it. This should be done not later 
than October. It will not do to leave it on the tree until early 
spring, for its “fruits ” will have been cast before that time, or there is 
danger of scattering them about. Therefore, if the tree is to have a new 
head put on in th(! spring by grafting, cut it down in the autumn, and con¬ 
sume the cankered parts by fire. 2, Cut off the heads of all cankered 
trees, and regraft them with varieties that have proved free from the 
affection. 3, If the tree is young and cankered in the stem cut away 
the cankered part during summer clean off, that is, just outside the 
swelling, and evenly and neatly all round, and cover it at once with a 
plaster of cow manure and clay, and over that a piece of sack to keep it 
from falling off. Before the autumn the bark will have healed around the 
wound without any abnormal swelling, but a steady and healthy growth 
of new bark will be formed for covering over the wound. If the wound 
still swells abnormally cut it still further and outside the swelling, 
which remove carefully with a chisel, then apply the plaster. Make no 
mistake—the canker—the fungus must come out, or no cure can be 
effected. 4, Spray the trees in February or as soon afterwards as the 
weather is mild, always before the buds cast their scales, and in dry 
weather, with modified Eau Celeste, made by dissolving 2 lbs. of sulphate 
of copper in one vessel, 2 lbs. of carbonate of soda in another, pouring 
together and adding 1 pint of ammonia (20°), and 32 gallons of water, 
using a Vermoral Knapsack Pump, and let every part of the tree be 
coated with the spray, then no fungus can push its germinal tube on 
that tree without absorbing its last meal. It is good against “ Apple 
scale ” and “ cracking in Pears,” but these require to be coated with 
the fungicide as soon as the fruit is well set in each case. The spraying 
need not be repeated to prevent canker, once a year being sufficient, 
and always before the spores have pushed their germinal tubes into 
the inner bark, otherwise the spraying is useless, for nothing will 
destroy the fungus then without killing the trees. 
The foregoing is all I know about Nectria ditissima—its prevention 
and cure. It is necessary to state that what is often taken for canker is 
not that caused by the fungus, for a tree may have wounds without 
Nectria ditissima penetrating the inner bark around the wound, they 
being entirely innocent of canker caused by fungi. 
If the wounds are free from Nectria ditissima there will not be any 
abnormal swelling of the bark around the circumference, but a clean 
growth of new bark extending over them, in which assistance may be 
given by a plaster of cow manure and clay over each, and it will keep out 
Nectria ditissima spores. 
Apple and Pear trees are sometimes affected by _ a dry gangrene, 
caused by frost or improper nutrition—excess or deficiency of soil con¬ 
stituents, and as this and cankered trees may be assisted to cover the 
wood with new bark and resist fungal attack better by manurial 
applications. Mr. Kruse’s case will be further referred to in another 
communication.—G. Abbey. 
Events of the Week.— A meeting of the Royal Botanic Society 
takes place on Saturday, January 14th. The Committees of the Royal 
Horticultural Society also meet for the first time this year at the Drill 
Hall, James Street, on Tuesday, the 17th. On the same day at 3 P.M. 
the annual general meeting of the Gardeners’ Royal Benevolent Institu¬ 
tion will be held at Simpson’s, 101, Strand, W.C., particulars of which 
are given elsewhere. A gathering of the Horticultural Club and a 
Committee meeting of the National Rose Society will likewise take 
place on Tuesday afternoon at the Hotel Windsor, Victoria Street, S.W. 
- The Weather in London. —There has been a change in the 
weather in the metropolis since last week. On Sunday it rained, more 
or less, nearly all the day, and on Monday also rain fell heavily 
during the afternoon and evening. Tuesday proved fine and compara¬ 
tively mild, local showers occurring during the afternoon. On Wednes¬ 
day morning frost was apparent, and at the time of going to press it is 
fine, but cold, with a north-easterly wind. 
-Weather in the North. —The week ending the 10th inst. 
has been throughout of a very wintry nature. Snow fell over the 
country generally, in some places to the depth of nearly a foot; and for 
a second time this winter we had 24° of frost. Lower readings are 
reported farther north. Towards the end of the week a thaw took 
place, but we have 10° frost on Tuesday morning.—B. D., S. Perthshire. 
- Apples prom Canada. —It may interest your readers to 
know that 470,380 barrels of Apples have been shipped from the port of 
Montreal to the United Kingdom during the season that has just closed. 
This is an increase of 157,043 over the season of 1891.—C. 
