98 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ Fel r lary 2 1393. 
Mr. Harman Payne, trying to exp'ain the difEerence between “ tweedledum 
und tweedledee.” 
Your eorrespondent also takes Mr. Godfrey to task for saying a few 
'weeks since he would leave no stone unturned to clear himself—that is, 
if necessary, to take legal proceedings; but Mr. Godfrey frankly 
waived his right to accept the most fair proposition of Mr. Fowler. 
No long letters, no legal quibbling can do away with the fact that 
Mr. Godfrey’s challenge has not been accepted, and the readers of your 
paper must and will judge for themselves who is in the strongest 
position. 
I am afraid after the Wells exposure and Mr. Godfrey’s Beauty of 
Exmouth case that many members of the N G.S. will lose confidence in 
■the impartiality of the officials, who have no right to favour one member 
of the Society more than another.—A Grower. 
[We add, a good grower too, and the bearer of a well-known name in 
the Chrysanthemum world.] 
CANKER—PROPOSED EXPERIMENTS. 
(^Continued from page 69.') 
As indicated last week, I now propose a few experiments that may 
be usefully made by Mr. Kruse or others who may be able to carry them 
out. 
Take six Hawthornden Apple trees on English Paradise stocks, dean, 
healthy, with a few blossom buds, and a convenient size for potting— 
say, three years from the bud ; also take three trees infected with 
■canker. 
Experiment 1.—Pot three of the healthy trees, the roots free from 
earth, in drift sand, draining the pots well, and making the sand firm. 
Preserve all the roots possible. Stand each pot on two bricks, placed a 
little distance apart, and so that the aperture of the pot is free, then 
surround the pots with ashes, bringing them up level with their rims, 
the site being open, but sheltered from winds. Label the trees 1, 2, 3. 
Prepare a nutrient solution as follows :—Nitrate of calcium, sulphate of 
ammonia, and nitrate of potash 1 oz. each, water 30 gallons, mix. Water 
all the trees with rain water until the buds commence swelling, then 
keep the sand regularly moistened with the nutrient solution, and when 
the leaves are fairly developed they may be found pale and yellowish. 
Add 1 oz. of sulphate of iron to the preceding solution, and water 
No. 1 and 2 trees therewith for a fortnight, when, the leaves being still 
pale and yellowish—an indication that there has not been any increase 
of the chlorophyll—add 4 ozs. of disodium phosphate to the solution last 
named, taking proper proportions of the elements and water in all the 
formulas, and water No. 1 tree with it. In a week’s time the leaves of 
this tree will have acquired a deep green colour, proof that iron alone is 
not sufficient to increase the chlorophyll, nor energise the protoplasm, so 
as to cause cell division, for until the phosphorus is introduced the 
sulphur of the iron sulphate is practically inert. 
No. 2 tree—still watered with the ammoniac, calcic, ferric, and 
potassic solution—remain pale and yellowish in its leaves and young 
growths, also fruit (if any). No. 3 tree, so far, has been nourished by 
the ammoniac, calcic, and potassic solution, and its foliage is quite as 
good in size and colour as No. 2, yet pale and yellowish ; add, therefore, 
4 ozs. of disodium phosphate to the first-named solution (nitrate of 
calcium, sulphate of ammonia, and nitrate of potash), and water No. 3 
tree with it. What then 1 In the course of a few days the growths 
(young) enlarge, cell division has taken place, the sulphur of the 
ammonium sulphate has combined with the phosphorus and energised 
the protoplasm, but there is not any pronounced increase of the 
chlorophyll. The trees may be treated according to the last regime 
given for each through the season and the difference in their growth, 
the perfection of their fruits (if any), the formation of buds, and the 
ripening of the wood will afford useful lessons. Only one tree will be 
satisfactory, that which has received a due supply of nitrogenous and 
mineral food—namely. No. 2. The foregoing experiments have been 
suggested by the researches of Hoppe-Seyler in 1879, and those of Herr 
C. Loew in 1892. They are practical deductions from the teaching of 
science, which it is high time the horticulturist should avail himself of, 
and Mr. Kruse seems earnest in the matter. He does not, however, state 
what cultivation his ground received before planting with fruit trees. 
Was it subsoil ploughed or trenched i If not, there is probably a 
plough pan—that is, a layer of aluminous and ferrous particles more or 
less cemented together by the lime dissolved and washed into the soil 
immediately below that cultivated by the plough. This is important 
for our purpose—the potting of the other three healthy trees ; but I 
will presume that the soil has not had any special preparation mechani¬ 
cally for the fruit trees. 
Experiment II.—Pot one of the healthy trees in the top 9 inches of 
soil, taken out squarely, label it No. 4; another in the top 15 inches, 
No. 5 ; the other in the top 21 inches. No. 6. Place the potted trees 
in a similar position to that described for those in Experiment I, and 
surround with ashes. Supply rain water to all as required until the buds 
commence swelling, for, from that time forward until the fruit is fully 
swelled, they require nourishment, and we propose to treat each tree 
differently, as follows :—No. 4, Water with the drainings of farmyard 
manure diluted to the colour of mild ale, paler rather than darker, at 
every alternate watering through the season. That is a complete 
manure for present needs. If that cannot be had, take the drainings of 
stables or cow houses, or both, urine chiefly composing the contents, and 
add a peck of fresh horse or cow manure to 20 gallons, mix, stir twice a 
day, morning and evening, for two dajs, then add 100 gallons of water, 
straining before use through a coarse sack. If the last named substances 
cannot be had, dissolve 1 lb. of Peruvian guano in 20 gallons of water, 
and supply it to the tree. If the foliage, by the use of the nutrient 
solution just mentioned is not of a healthy green colour, but pale and 
sickly, iron and sulphur is wanted. We have them in soot, sulphate of 
ammonia, 3*58 per cent., and in sulphate of lime, 11’05 per cent, for 
sulphur, oxides of iron and alumina, 15 69 per cent., for iron ; therefore 
form dry light soot into a thick paste with water, and use a tablespoonful 
to each gallon of water at every other watering, and occasionally after 
the leaves become, as they will, a deep green colour. That No. 4 tree 
will be healthy and fruitful in the current year and the next because 
well nourished, and we have proved that, if the tree carry deep green 
foliage by the use of stable or farmyard manure in liquid form, the soil 
contains enough iron and sulphur, and that farmyard manure is a proper 
application for such land without supplementary supplies of sulphur 
and iron, or they need only be supplied to augment the crops. We have 
also seen that sulphates of ammonia and lime and a supply of iron is 
beneficial where the foliage assumes a pale hue and does not form 
sufficient chlorophyll for health and profitable production. 
No. 5 tree may be nourished by alternate waterings of rain water and 
sulphate of ammonia 1 oz. to 4 gallons of water, as the soil is well pro¬ 
vided with potash, phosphoric acid and other elements, but I hardly 
anticipate this after midsummer, not on account of the lime, 3‘91 per 
cent, being excessive, but because it is too little to form nitrate of 
calcium fast enough ; therefore a supply of phosphatic and nitrogenic 
elements may be necessary, as they are, if the sulphate of ammonia is 
not sufficient. But it has served our purpose, if No. 5 tree does not 
flourish with the sulphate of ammonia it is not a proper dressing for 
Mr. Kruse’s soil unless the iron is sealed in a pan, and it would be 
better to break it up and apply farmyard manure than waste money on 
sulphate of ammonia, for the iron would only seize and hold it fast, 
unless liberated by roots. 
No. 6 tree, supplied with nitrate of potash, 1 oz. to 4 gallons of water 
and 2 ozs. of bone superphosphate to 4 gallons of water, mixed = 8 
gallons, at every alternate watering, that is, rain-water once, then the 
mixture, followed by the rain water, and so on, ought to produce healthy, 
deep green foliage, and sturdy growth ; if not the first, and the latter is 
stunted, supply nitrate of soda, 1 oz. to 4 gallons of water, with 1 dr. 
of sulphate of iron added to the nitrate solution, once a week instead of 
one of the other nutrient waterings. Healthy vigour must follow, and 
this mixture of manure is likely to meet Mr. Kruse’s requirements. 
Experiment III.—Two of the trees selected for this crucial test must 
have one or more abnormal swellings each, otherwise they are not 
cankered by Nectria ditissima, and no swelling or excrescence caused by 
American blight or woolly aphis must be mistaken for canker, though 
the latter likes a canker-infested wound, and is often associated with 
the fungus, which, by striving to enlarge the wound, causes the tree to 
push an abnormal amount of cellular matter to cover the wood, and 
that being tender the aphis can the easier abstract the tree’s juices, so 
that both evils flourish together. If the trees have any aphis in the 
cankered wounds, dress them with methylated spirit; then cut out the 
whole seat of the canker in one tree, as described in a former communi¬ 
cation, wash it with a 6 per cent, solution of sulphate of iron or car¬ 
bolic acid, diluted with a dozen times its weight of water. Treat every 
cankered spot on that tree similarly, pot it, and label it No. 7. Pot the 
other tree just a^ it is—cankered, swelled abnormally around the wound 
or wounds, ticket it No. 8. 
The other tree has some wounds not marked by abnormal excres¬ 
cences, the new bark around the wounds being only slightly raised, pot 
it and attach a label No. 9. Afford these trees similar conditions to the 
other six trees. 
No. 7 tree must have its wounds dressed when dry with some styptic 
to keep out the weather. Avoid all tars ; shellac dissolved in alcohol is 
a capital dressing for a'l wounds or cuts on trees. Apply a plaster of cow 
manure and clay over every wound, reaching well over the bark, and 
renew as necessary throughout the summer. Also apply a little of the 
following mixture every fortnight from the time the buds move until 
October—5 ozs. bone superphosphate, 3 ozs. nitrate of potash, 1 oz. sul¬ 
phate of lime, mix, and do not supply more than \ oz. to a 12-inch pot. 
Afford an all-round manure as described for No. 4 tree at every alternate 
watering, except when the afore and after-mentioned top-dressings are 
applied, at which water only at that and the succeeding two waterings 
must be supplied. When the first leaves are fairly developed top- 
dressings may be given every other week, but not that in which the 
other is supplied, up to mid-July of Thomas’ phosphate powder 10 ozs., 
nitrate of soda 5 ozs., and J oz. sulphate of iron, mix ; dose, ^ oz. 
per 12-inch pot. Treat No. 8 and 9 precisely the same as No. 7. 
What are the results? No. 7 has put out a fine healthy callus, and 
covered over a large extent of the wound surface with beautiful new 
bark, and its growths are sturdy and full of promise. No. 8’s excres¬ 
cences have enlarged enormously; the tree has thrown out'cellular 
substance all round the wound or wounds, and perhaps suc¬ 
ceeded in entirely closing the gap and covered the wood with fresh 
bark. The tree has won. It may for a time hold its own, an unsightly 
swollen limb is the consequence, and outside that sooner or later the 
fungus will push its mycelium into the inner bark outside the swollen 
part of the limb and the smooth bark becomes discoloured, dead, and it 
cracks and peels off—the “fruits” of the fungus have been perfected, 
and are scattered by the winds. But the tree does not always cover 
over the cankered wound, especially in those of Ribston Pippin and 
