March SI, 1889. ] 
JOURNAL of horticulture and cottage gardener. 
2ol 
in started and naturally grown collections, we had the benefit of 
quite five or six weeks longer bloom. In the second week of 
September I was able to exhibit three dozen spikes, the following 
week three dozen, and again in the first week of October another 
three dozen. In several cases it was quite the middle of October 
before unstarted corms flowered, and these early sorts, while late 
varieties did not flower at all. Several growers who have seen the 
good effects of starting in heat are this season going to adopt this 
method, and provided we have a season like last starting the 
corms will become quite general. 
Those who have not too large a collection will find it the better 
fjlan to grow the plants in pots, employing a compost like that 
suitable for Liliums, and keeping the later varieties in pots until 
they have grown to some size. For my own part I am obliged to 
be content with placing the corms thickly in propagating boxes ; 
and, although this may not be so good a plan as starting the plants 
one in a pot, it is certainly better than not starting them at all. I 
have had inquiries as to whether only the late varieties should be 
started, but if the corms are cut to single growths it will be found 
that not only the later sorts, but also the early ones, may be started 
in late localities with advantage. Given two or three growths 
from one corm it is almost certain that these will flower at different 
dates. The early varieties which I planted without starting were 
quite a failure in the past season, whereas the same varieties 
started yielded a loilg continued season of flowers. 
It is also surely time that growers should leave the method of 
wide planting ; 4 inches apart, or three to a foot, is quite wide 
enough to set out out the plants in rows. At the same time it is 
advisable to plant near the surface. The best and earliest ripened 
corms are always those lying just below the surface of the soil. 
Depth in the earlier period of growth is secured by drawing a 
narrow ridge over the line of corms. An open drained soil is also 
very important to insure early ripening. 
The older varieties are much cheaper this season, and a col¬ 
lection of really fine sorts can be secured at lower rates than 
ever before. The best spike I had last season was one of Amitie, 
and it is now offered as low as 8d, each. Opale, Dalila, A. 
Brongniart, Crepuscule, Horace Yernet, Flamboyant, Teresita, and 
Ondine are all very cheap. Baroness Burdett Coutts, L’Unique 
Yiolet, Mdlle. Marie Mies, Leviathan, Grand Rouge, &c., are all 
at reasonable prices. Of the more expensive sorts Nereide, 
Pasteur, Fra Diavolo, a lovely form ; Enchanteresse, a variety of 
great excellence, blooms very large and open, but rather crushed on 
the spike ; Mabel, Dr. Bailly, Jubile, and Erigone, should be 
grown.—B. 
CANKER IN FRtJIT TREES. 
Since both Mr. Tonks and myself agree that grafting a free 
growing variety of Apple or Pear on a stock stunted in growth by 
canker frequently cures that disease, I have ventured to alter the 
heading of this communication. There is no doubt whatever as to 
the efficacy of the practice, and in instances innumerable I am 
fully convinced that it is the simplest, most economical, and satis¬ 
factory method of dealing with the great evil in question. I do not 
pretend that any ancient worn-out tree can be rendered fruitful by 
grafting, and for the reason advanced with so much ability by Mr. 
Tonks, as obviously if a tree has grown from maturity to decay—I 
mean has attained the dimensions of a timber tree and become 
worthless by age—it must have abstracted most of the nutrient 
matter from the soil which is necessary for the sustenance of not 
only that variety but of others which might be grafted on it. I am 
•as satisfied as anyone can be that there are thousands of trees the 
decay of which is the actual result of soil exhaustion ; and it has 
Been my duty to prove this to demonstration by restoring some to 
health by soil renewal, root and branch pruning, wound paring, and 
plastering and bark cleansing. 
It is just thirty years since I had my first charge as head 
gardener, and the experience I had previously gained enabled me 
to rejuvenate a favourite old Ribston Pippin Apple that for years 
had [been practically worthless, yet was allowed to linger on. It 
is true manure had been piled round the stem, and dressings of 
ffime and guano given, but these did no good, and I cannot conceive 
that the application of any kind of manure, chemical or otherwise, 
spread on the surface could have effected such a change as re¬ 
sulted from a different method of procedure. It was necessary to 
dig to a depth of 2 feet before roots could be found. Two cart¬ 
loads of soil were removed, and fresh compost, consisting largely of 
wood ashes, was placed in contact with them. This, with uniform 
moisture, incited the emission of fibres from the previously fibre¬ 
less roots, and improvement in the growth of the tree followed, 
eventually to bear really good and much-cherished fruit. 
I am unable to convince myself that any surface sprinkling 
whatever .could have filled the soil above the old and more or less 
cankered roots with such a mass of fibres as was produced by the 
new soil, because I believe the virtues of the chemicals would have 
been long in finding their way through the 2-feet layer, half of 
which was very much like digging among soap. However such soil 
may have been dressed with potash, soda, lime, phosphorus, and 
other essentials, I am of opinion its mechanical condition was 
antagonistic to free root extension, and the food imparted to the 
soil would have remained there, and the tree would have starved 
surrounded by plenty, just as a muzzled dog would starve with food 
in his kennel. Before the food could be appropriated the muzzle 
would have to be removed, and the great thickness of soapy soil 
referred to was practically a muzzle to the tree, and very little that 
might have been given could have been absorbed, because unreached 
by organs of absorption. 
I should not advise the grafting of trees so old and decayed, and 
in soil so exhausted, as soil must be by the nutriment having been 
dragged out of it in the course of half a century, or probably 
much longer period, and should consider it in every way better to 
plant young trees on another site ; but it is entirely different with 
trees comparatively young that were planted in well-prepared soil, and 
in which the majority of them are in the best of health, but a few 
fail through canker. Under those circumstances grafting is in my 
view the simplest, quickest, and most certain method of effecting 
an improvement—that is to say, when a supply of good fruit is the 
chief object in view, and the particular varieties producing it a 
secondary consideration. The root extension following the freer 
growth of the added variety enables nutriment to be imbibed from 
the soil that remained quiescent before because of root enfeeble- 
ment. I believe that some varieties of Apples escape the evil in 
question through their natural vigour and hardiness, and others 
succumb in consequence of their inherent weakness and tenderness. 
I do not think the difference between, say, the Golden Noble and 
Cellini can be traced to unsuitability of nourishment to the weaker 
of the two ; or, in other words, I am of opinion that no combina¬ 
tion of food could be given that would enable it to equal the 
stronger variety in longevity and freedom from disease. I thin< 
some varieties of trees and plants are constitutionally weak, and 
cannot be made strong by any special food, any more than naturally 
weak individuals of the human family can be made robust by the 
best dietary that can be prescribed. Some good may be done to 
both, but after all that can be accomplished the weak, as a rale, 
remain relatively weak to the end. 
I am very far from suggesting that Mr. Tonks’ views and 
proposals should be lightly regarded; on the contrary I regard his 
contributions on the subject of canker as most important. He has 
thought out the subject deeply, and has set others thinking, and I 
am convinced he has only one object in view—the determination of 
truth. His reasoning powers are highly developed, and in mascu¬ 
linity of mind he ranks, in my opinion, distinctly above the 
majority of us; but, while admitting this, I cannot, so far, rid 
myself of the suspicion that he overlooks the effect which invigorated 
growth, resultant from grafting, exertsonroot extension and activity ; 
or, at least, has failed to grasp its full significance. I know very 
well that neither the British Queen nor President Strawberry will 
succeed alike in all soils and situations. I will grant that some 
plants have special requirements, but these are not confined to 
food, and failure may accrue, and has often resulted, to plants 
altogether apart from the constituents in the soil. This, I believe, 
applies to fruit trees, and I am of opinion that canker in them is 
not always the outcome of a chemical defect in the soil, or from 
an absence of something in it. I have seen canker come like a 
scourge after exceptionally severe winters, and some trees almost 
destroyed in consequence. Mr. Tonks says when cankered trees 
are restored by grafting this proves it is not a condition of roots 
or of soil that produces the mischief, for “ the roots and soil were 
in the same condition when the tree was affected by canker as 
when the growth became healthy.” That is not my expetience, at 
least in regard to the roots. I have found very striking differences 
in the condition of the roots of cankered trees and of trees made 
healthy by grafting, and suspect I am not singular in such 
experience. 
Mr. Tonks asks, “Why is it more probable that the rools of a 
healthy tree should become checked and paralysed, and so unable 
to absorb a due supply of food, than that the tree should become 
weak and unable to resist disease through deficiency < f the 
necessary food in the soil ? ” Possibly it may be as difficult for the 
questioner to prove the second proposition to ray satisfaction as 
for me to prove the first to his satisfaction. When I see a com¬ 
paratively few varieties of Apples falling a prey to canker, and 
the great majority free from it in the same soil, 1 think the few 
are essentially tender, and that addition to the soil would not make 
them hardy, and a check to the growth of the branches checks the 
roots proportionately. Moreover, anyone can check even a strong 
growing tree and arrest the extension of the roots by ringing the 
