THE WEATHER AND SOUL.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIV, Issue 220, 16 September 1893, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE WEATHER AND SOUL.

Never in my experience of New Zoaland have I seen such uncongenial weather fo r gardening purposes. At intervals we geb a few fine daya, and are jusb beginning bohopo thab ib has seb in for a week or so of fine weabher, when again Capbain Edwin sends us anobher lob of web weabhor,eeasoned wibj, an occasional gale of wind, which bringa along with ib a few cold, penetrabing showers which keep bhe soil in a conbinuai web, sour state. Warm, comparatively dry Boil, which in ordinary seasons could al. tnosb be wroughb ab any time bhab ib was nob acbually raining, are bhrough their continual web abate almost as bad to labour ns our stiff clay soil. Time after time with a few days' sunshine I have seen bhose soils Stirred up on bhe surfaco, still it was not in a fib sbate for sowing seeds, being clammy and wet. Cultivators should, even with the chance of being a little late, defer (Bowing seeds until they can get their surface soils into a good state of tilth. To Bow while the soil is in a bad condition will likely result in greater loasea than even late sowing of main cropa. Of course with suecessional crops ib is advisable bo risk a libble for the sake of keeping up a aupply. Our Orange and Pear Trees. Under the above heading appeared a few Weeks ago in the columna of the ' Sydney Daily Telegraph ' a lettor treating of certain untoward reaulta of orango and pear culbure in tho county of Cumberland, New South Wales. ' Why is it,'asks the writer, 1 that the orange breo dies oub in many parts of tho county of Cumberland, and tbo pear, so productive a bearer in former yeara, is nowall bub unproductive?1 Tho maladies to which he refers are altogether apart from the results of tho punctures made by a fly somo 20 years ago, or from tho damage sustained by tbo borors ; neither of these, it is said, affects the presenb question. ' Orchards onco producbive now precsnb a frightful spectacle of decay, tho trcoa being nothing more than skeletons of rotten wood. Many theories have been suggested as to diseaso in the root, soi, etc., but, on examination, I believe the grafting to be the cause.' Tho want of longevity in orange trees has, ab Irregular intervals of time, been discussed at considerable length in our own columns. Spanish experiences were communicatod by ono of the leading growers of the Peninsula, for even in Spain the ' bark diseaso ' had become a serious malady. On the side opposite the sun ab3 p.m. tbe bark near tho ground had been found to shrivel and crack the result boing bhe early decease of bho subjecb. In bbia colony, and alao in New Soubh Walea, similar results were noticed, bub lesa has been heard of such affecbions of labe years. To bhe pracbice, bhen common, of using the lemons as a stock, tho occurrence of the bark disease was attributed. Growers were recommended to try the Seville orange stock, and bhab was done apparenbly wibh parbial success, bub opinions were advanced by men of European experience, and also by obhora of considerable experience in bhia hemisphere, againsb any kind of working. Ib was alleged that none of the old Drange trees of Spain, Italy, and the Azores aro worked ; the whole of them aro seedlings, and their longevity was attributed to thab condition. Our contemporary's correspondent (Mr Richard Sadleir) appears also to have arrived at the conclusion thab grafting is bhe cause of tho early decease of orango brees and lemona in his neighbourhood, and ho advances plausible, nob bo say complebely logical, reaaona for hia opinion. 'My reasons,' he Bays, ' for supposing bhis are bhab in a friend's large orchard, where Blmosb- all the "trees havo died oub, some bhab were layers aro sbill healthy and productive, although the oldesb brees in the orchard. In a visit a few daya back to an orchard, tho space waa pointed oub whore a row of grafted troea had perishod, bub a row of Seedlings was prosperous ; whilo the idea of bhe disease in bhe roob seems nob satisfactory, inasmuch as the grafted portion dies, while the stock throws up vigorous Bhoots, proving ib to be healthy, and, further, on examination ib will bo found thab bhe grafb is often denuded of bark, proving something wrong in the graft.' A suggestion is thrown out thah'budding instead of grafbing on bhe lemon sbock would prove a remedy. Budding is rarely-resorted to in raising trees of tbo citrus tri^be, and whether it would prove betbor bhan grafting remains'to bo determined. Theoretically it should make longer-lived trees, provided the stock and the scion woro naturally of equal growth, bub if the one wore of moro Vigorous habit than bho obher, and especially if eibhor possea3ed much of whab wo may call rigidiby of constibution, the union musb inevitably bo of brief duration. As an example of this ' rigidiby 'we selecb the almond, which is frequently employed as a stock for tho peach. It ia decidedly ono of bhe worab stocks for bho labbor bhat have como undor our notice, Mr Sadleir speaks of layer!., which, however, he says gardeners object to, for some Toason unknown to him. Tho reason U thab bhey are generally considered wanting in robusbneeß, bub such is certainly nob always the case. In suggesting that layers of blight-proof apples have been employed to some exbenbnsstocks for varieties thab are naturally liable to abbacies of cotton blight, we do nob fail bo recognise bho wide difference exisbing bebween bhe nabural constitution of the apple and tho orange. Bub while doing so ibiaonlyrighttopointoutthabapple cubbings make more vigorous and lasting trees than those from layers, and thab as a rule thoy aro also longer lived than those grafted on promiscuously-taken seedling Btocks. The Character of the soil is another point bhab cannob he omitted in considering quesbions such as the tax*going. Mr Sadloir observes :—' No doubb soil and sholber have much to do with on-hards. I have just visited an orchard • **ll*re the soil is a mixture of sand and a

small portion of loam—one would suppose barrenness itself—bub bobh vines and brees are healbhy and producbive. This proves bhab mnch of our barren land may be burned bo good accounb.' Ib is hardly necessary to suggesb to our Victorian readers bhab bhe greater parb of our moab lasting and producbive orcharda are locabed on poor, sandy soils, and bhab some of the mosb unpromising land in Nunawading, bhab was long held bo be perfecbly useless, now carries orchard breea of bhe mosb vigorous growbh, where nobhing has been done bo bho land excepb brenching. MrSadler'a suggested theory of the causes which have led to tho decadence of pears, ia we venburo to think, a guesa wide of the mark.. ' Tho assigned cause ia the change of bhe seasons. Tho tree blosaoms too early. If our springs have grown later, that may be the cause. On my arrival here, some 40 years ago, we always pub in our crops in March to catch tho rains. Now we crop as late as June and July, and our rains and floods are later. A flood in Augusb would have been a miracle, bub nob so now.' We are greably inclined bo believe thab tho minute insect phybopbus pyri is bhe cauße of bhe unproducbiveness of the Cumberland pear trees, just aa it haa been of similar edecta in South Australia and in Victoria. It is barely possible, too, that some very minute living organism may bo a common cause of injury to orange trees, although nob the cause of the wanb of longeviby which is tho subjecb of the presenb nobice- We shall bo glad bo find thab tbe notice thuß directed to so importanb a subjecb has nob been in vain, and bhab bhe sociebiea have deemed ib sufficienbly inberesbing bo be made a subjecb of discussion ab their monbhly meetings.