*Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, vol. iv. p. 381.

There is but little else that we can learn from the English orchardists, except what to avoid of their practices. The cider orchards, in general, are in every way miserably managed, and the greater number of those that I saw in Herefordshire were, in almost every respect, worse than the worst I ever saw in New England. The apple in England is more subject to disease; and I should judge, from what was told me, that in a course of years it suffered more from the attacks of insects and worms than in America. The most deplorable disease is canker.. This malady is attributed sometimes to a "cold, sour " soil, sometimes to the want of some ingredients in the soil that are necessary to enable the tree to carry on its healthy functions, sometimes to the general barrenness of the soil, and sometimes to the " wearing out of the varieties." The precaution and remedies used by gardeners (rarely by orchardists) for it, are generally those that would secure or restore a vigorous growth to a tree. The first of these is deepening and drying the soil, or deep draining and trenching.

The strongest and most fruitful orchards, it is well known, are those which have been planted upon old hop-grounds, where the soil has been deeply, tilled and manured for a series of years, with substances that contain a considerable amount of phosphorous, such as woolen rags and bones. The roots of the hop also descend far below the deepest tillage that can be given it; (in a calcareous gravelly subsoil they have been traced ten feet from the surface;) a kind of subsoiling is thus prepared for the apple by the decay of the hop roots. In some parts it is the custom to introduce the hop culture upon the planting of a young orchard, the hops occupying the intervals until the branches of the trees interfere with them. Nothing is more likely than this to ensure a rapid and healthy growth of the trees.

I recommend to those who intend planting an orchard, to have the ground for it in a state of even, deep, fine tilth beforehand, and to plant in the intervals between apple or pear trees some crop, which, like hops, will be likely to get for itself good feeding and culture for several years. Peach trees, and dwarf apples (on Doucain stocks) and pears (on quince stocks,) answer very well for this, and will make a handsome return some years before the standard apples and pears come into bearing.

With regard to the richness of the soil, however, it is said that " although high and exciting modes of cultivation may flatter for a while by specious appearances, it is a grave consideration whether they do not carry serious evils in their train." This caution will remind the American horticulturist of Mr. Downing's recommendation to those planting orchards on the over-deep and rich Western alluvial soils, to set the trees upon hillocks. The danger apprehended is in both cases the same, that of too succulent growth. Mr. Williams, of Pitmaston, a distinguished English horticulturist, has found deficient ripeness of the young wood to be the prime predisposing cause of the canker. He recommends every year the shortening in of each shoot of the young unripened wood, which he says will preserve trees of old " worn out " varieties, as " perfectly free from canker as those of any new variety".

An impenetrable bottom of stone, at not more than three feet from the surface, is frequently made as a precaution against canker. I have been told that in the ancient orchards attached to monasteries, such a flagging of brick or stone is often found under the whole area of the orchard. This would seem at first sight to be directly opposed to the other precaution, of thorough-draining and deepening the surface soil; but it may be considered that the injury which stagnant water would effect is in a degree counteracted when the roots do not descend below the influence of the atmosphere and the heat of the sun. It is not unlikely that these influences would extend to a depth of three feet from the surface, in a soil that had been so thoroughly trenched and lightened up as it necessarily must be to allow of a paving to be made under it. -The paving does not probably much retard the natural descent of water from the surface, nor does it interfere with its capilliary ascent; the trenching makes the descent of super-abundant water from the surface more rapid, while the increased porosity of the trenched soil gives it increased power of absorption, both from the subsoil and the atmosphere, as well as of retention of a healthy supply of moisture.

The paving also prevents the roots from descending below where this most favorable condition of the soil has been made to exist. The effect would doubtless be greatly better if thorough-draining were given in addition; but so far as it goes, the under paving and trenching is calculated to effect the same purpose as deep drainage; to secure a healthy supply of heat, light, and moisture to all the roots.

It is evident that the precautions and remedies which have been found of service against canker, whether operations upon the roots or the foliage, are all such as are calculated to establish or replace the tree in circumstances favorable to its general thriving, healthy • condition.

This suggests the idea that canker may be the result of a general constitutional debility of the tree, not occasioned by any one cause or set of causes, but resultant from all and any circumstances unfavorable to the healthy growth of a tree; and it is a question whether the same may not be thought of the peculiar diseases of other trees, the peach, the pear, the plum, the sycamore, and perhaps even of the rot of the potato.