November 3, 1888. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
149 
may be bad, and all adding to the beauty and fading 
glories of tbe woods in autumn. On the rising ground 
in the distance are thriving young plantations of Larch, 
Scotch Fir, and other forest trees, while ever and anon 
glimpses might be had of hounds and horses galloping 
over the fields and downs, adding much to the reality 
and interest of autumn scenery.— P. 
-->X«- 
THE CORDON PEAR WALL AT 
WORTH PARK, CRAWLEY. 
Our illustration represents the cordon Pear wall at 
Worth Park, Crawley, the residence of Mrs. Montefiore. 
This wall is 375 ft. in length, and was planted by 
Messrs. J". Cheal & Sons, of the Lowfield Nurseries, 
three years ago. The trees are all on the Quince stock, 
and they are planted 2 ft. apart ; the aspect of the 
wall is about due west, and it is some 8 ft. in height. 
There are altogether about thirty varieties, and at the 
time of a recent visit many of the trees were carrying 
remarkably good crops of fine Pears. Among them 
Louise Bonne of Jersey, very fine; Beurre Diel, 
Williams’ Bon Chretien, Fertility, Beurre d’Amanlis, 
Beurre de Capiaumont, Marie Louise d’Uecle, Beurre 
Alexander Lucas, Beurre Ranee, Beurre Hardy, 
Clapp’s Favourite, - 
Cceleste Mignot, 
Chaumontel 
d’Ete, Brock- 
worth Park, Cale- 
basse, Duchesse 
de Chambord, 
Souvenir du Con- 
grfes, Triomphe de 
Jodoigne, Madame 
Trey ve, and 
Rivers’ Princess. 
The trees have 
now, in most 
cases, reached the 
top of the wall, 
and they are 
generally in good 
bearing condition. 
Here and there 
could be seen a 
variety that had 
made a vigorous 
growth, a ten¬ 
dency that can be 
easily corrected by 
a resort to judi¬ 
cious root pruning. 
Messrs. Cheal & 
Sons, who make a 
great specialty of 
cordon Pears, re¬ 
commend that in 
no case should the 
trees be planted 
more than 2 ft. 
apart. This, they 
say, is a very im¬ 
portant point, and 
some people hav¬ 
ing planted their trees farther apart than this 
have been disappointed, as the greater freedom per¬ 
mitted caused the putting forth of strong side growths, 
the wall being covered with a redundant growth, instead 
of bristling with fruiting spurs. The training of such 
trees must be in accordance with the height and position 
of the wall. If the height be sufficient, say 12 ft. or 20 ft., 
the cordons may be trained upright; if lower it is better 
to train them obliquely, as is the case at Worth Park, 
to an aDgle say of 40° to 50°, or even to a greater slope 
if the wall is low. This gives an extra length to the 
tree, which is a decided advantage ; the position also 
tends to check the wood growth and promote fruit¬ 
fulness. When the cordons are planted the leader of 
each should be tied out to its full length, and not cut 
back. 
As a matter of course the wall is wired, the wires 
being about 3 inches or so from the wall. Mr. Glen, 
the gardener at Worth Park, takes a great interest in 
his wall of cordons, and under his able management 
large crops of fine fruit will no doubt result. 
CANKER IN FRUIT TREES* 
I have been requested by Mr. Barron to contribute a 
paper for discussion at this meeting, and as the results 
of some experiments recently made by me appear to 
indicate that there may be a remedy for that worst of 
all diseases affecting fruit trees—canker, which is 
described in the Herefordshire Pomona as “the terror 
of all orchardists and the bane of most orchards”—I 
thought it right to comply with the request. As my 
own experience scarcely extends beyond my garden, 
and numerous duties have prevented me from devoting 
even there that close aud continued observation which 
is necessary for the proper study of such a subject, I 
should have hesitated to intrude my crude notions in 
antagonism to the authorities if their views had been 
clear and definite; but as these are very vague, both as 
to the cause and the cure of the disease, I venture to 
state my own. 
Perhaps the most convenient method of dealing with 
the subject in detail is to analyse, paragraph by para¬ 
graph, all that is stated relating to canker by some 
recent and recognised authority ; that splendid work, the 
Herefordshire Pomona, is possibly the best for the pur¬ 
pose, as it may be assumed to contain a summary of the 
most recent knowledge of all that relates to the orchard. 
Pancratium fragrans.— The best results and the 
greatest number of flowers on a spike are obtained 
from bulbs that are grown singly under good cultural 
treatment. Offsets that are too small to flower may 
be inserted two or three together to be grown on 
Full-sized bulbs are too large to be profitably grown in 
the same pot. “ ' 
The Cordon Pear Wall at Worth Park. 
Not Due to Direct Injury. 
The first paragraph of the passage in that work relating 
to canker states that “it is always due to direct injury.” 
In a controversy a clear and definite issue is most satis¬ 
factory, therefore with all submission I venture to assert 
that it is never due to such cause. That canker may 
appear in parts which have been injured is no proof 
that the injury caused the canker, although the injury 
may determine the particular spot where the disease 
makes itself visible. A well-no urished and consequently 
healthy tree may be injured to any extent without 
development of canker, while an ill-nourished tree, or, 
to avoid begging the question, a tree infected with the 
disease, will develop in all parts the external signs 
without the slightest injury or abrasion of any kind, 
and very frequently on parts where, from their well- 
protected position, such as the angles of the branches 
with the main stem, it is almost impossible that injury 
could take place. 
The coincidence of canker and an injured part is 
no more proof of the former having been caused 
by the injury than that a hole in a building through 
which the flames of a conflagration are first visible 
is the cause of the fire. The second paragraph 
states that 
* Condensed from a paper read by Edmund Tonks, Esq., B.C.L., 
Knowle, Warwickshire, at the Chiswick Conference. 
“Weakness is at the Bottom of the Canker.” 
This weakness cannot be want of apparent vigour of 
growth, for I have frequently observed trees attacked 
which for a number of years have made the strongest 
growth, yet the disease has appeared before any external 
signs of weakness were visible ; the very vigour of the 
growth in some cases appearing to hasten the attack in 
a soil containing too limited a supply of the necessary 
food, as that supply is sooner exhausted, and the time 
arrives when the large tree can no longer find within 
reach of its roots sufficient for its maintenance. It 
may be that only one element of food is failing ; but 
every element is indispensable for perfect growth of 
the whole tree, and that failure would fully account 
for arrest of growth in parts, weakness, and consequent 
disease. The third paragraph is, 
“The Tree is Old.” 
This may be expressed in other words—the tree has for 
a long time been growing in the same soil. It is not 
difficult to realise that in the course of many years a tree 
may exhaust the most fertile soil. Many seem to over¬ 
look the necessity of restoring to the soil what is taken 
away year after year by large crops of fruit. However 
rich the soil may have been originally, each crop takes 
away a definite 
quantity of the 
food required bj r 
the tree, until in 
time insufficient 
remains; then the 
tree fails, not 
through age, but 
through inanition. 
The same gar¬ 
deners who leave 
their fruit trees 
unfed, would 
think it most un¬ 
reasonable to ex¬ 
pect them to grow 
their crops of 
vegetables with¬ 
out manure. The 
fourth paragraph 
is, 
“Or the Va¬ 
riety is VERY 
Old or very 
Delicate.” 
This raises the 
much-vexed 
question whether 
a seminal plant 
has a finite life, 
or one which can 
be prolonged in¬ 
definitely by pro- 
----- pagation. Ex¬ 
perience seems to 
prove that indi¬ 
vidual life has a 
limit, though 
there is evidence 
that many seminal plants have a very prolonged 
existence ; however, the limits of this paper do 
not allow the present discussion of the question. It 
may be sufficient to say that observation does not lead 
me to believe that the age or delicacy of a variety 
renders it more liable to canker when the soil contains 
what it requires. The fifth paragraph suggests 
“That the Soil is not Sufficiently Drained.” 
Canker, according to my observation, occurs equally 
on well-drained as on ill-drained soils ; it is not a 
question of condition of roots. My own garden formerly 
contained several trees rapidly succumbing to canker, 
which, when grafted with other varieties, at once put 
on healthy growth, made fine heads, and have since for 
many years been perfectly free from the disease. Each 
variety requires its own appropriate food ; Strawberries 
afford a very good illustration of this. I have, among 
my friends, the reputation of growing this fruit to 
perfection, yet I had the greatest difficulty in finding 
varieties which would do fairly in my soil, and after 
trial of many more than a hundred, have so far only 
discovered about half-a-dozen which are moderately 
successful. British Queen refused to fruit; Dr. Hogg 
bore fairly as an annual, but did not survive to the 
second season—in fact all the Queen race and many 
other kinds only do more or less ill. Such being the 
case, it is not unreasonable to believe that some 
