Obrazy na stronie
PDF
ePub

înclined to the intricate and marvellous, take up some whimsical cause, (such as vermin coming from a foreign land with the east wind, the blossom being all burnt by fire in a cold frosty night, the trees being barren from receiving too much sap, &c.) that strikes their bewildered imagination, and draws into darkness after them, thousands who are too indolent or too pusillanimous to think for themselves.

To look for vermin at home, is below their exalted ideas; and are they to stoop to believe that the sap vessels are contracted to such a degree by cold, that the circulation is entirely stopt, and the young leaves and tender blossom wither and die? If they would take the trouble to look, they would see that it is not the blossom that first suffers, in cases of this kind, but the tender stalk on

7

which it grows, and that the blossom will appear healthy a considerable time after the effect on this is quite visible.

What has led gardeners and connoisseurs to think, that bending the branches gives them less sap, I do not know, as I have little intercourse with them or their writings; perhaps it has been from observing that the middle or main stem of a tree, growing most vertically, grows most luxuriantly; but they seem to have satisfied themselves with the first apparent cause that presented, without reasoning or considering, that the main shoot receives its sap in a direct line, whereas the branches receive theirs laterally. But it is as obvious, that, by whatever power the circulation of the sap is carried on, the bent branches must have, at least, the advantage of gravity in their fa

vour.

[merged small][ocr errors]

life, which it is unnecessary to take notice of here.

Canker explains every malady of fruit trees, and we are told that May mists are injurious to the fruit. But what wiser or better are we by knowing that May mists are injurious to the fruit, and that canker hurts the trees?

It is certainly true, that moist, calm, cold weather, in the month of May, is unfavour able to the fruit crop: but seeing we cannot alter the weather, we ought to inquire into the way and manner it becomes hurtful, that we may prevent its bad effects, as far as is in human power.

The month of May is the season when the trees are in blossom, which, in moist,

C

calm, cold weather, does not expand quickly, and fall off as in dry, warm, windy wea ther, but rather curls together, and forms a receptacle for the vermin, which, lodging in it, corrodes, and kills the fruit whilst setting.

The canker will be found to be nothing but decayed rotten bark, first occasioned, generally, by the stricture of the bark not allowing a free circulation of the juices, which break out in pear and apple trees, as the gum in the cherry, but not forming by itself a solid substance, like the gum, escapes common observation, at any part weaker by nature or injury, and is afterwards increased by these insects nestling and depositing their ova in it.

The usefulness of fruit for sick and heal

thy, the scanty portion the country affords, compared with the trees planted, render it a subject worthy of the most serious attention to discover any means to increase the quantity, by making the trees more productive. This is the intention of the following short essay. How far it has answered the purpose, let it speak for itself;

For facts are stubborn chields, and downa be denied."

As I was not bred a gardener, and never read any of their books, it cannot be expected that I can be acquainted with their terms, but I have studied to be as intelligible as I could, in using common language, and language further than being intelligible is not the object of this essay. I have used the words "outer and inner bark," because they are common, and generally understood in round terms.

« PoprzedniaDalej »