Sylva Part 24

I have now finish'd my planting: A word or two concerning their preservation, and the cure of their infirmities, expect in the following chapter.

FOOTNOTES:

{294:1}

Arbuteae crates, & mystica vannus Iacchi.

_Georg. 1._

{296:1}

............Non ultima belli Arma puellaris; laqueos haec nect.i.t amantum, Et venatricis disponit retia formae.

_Couleii_ pl. l. 6.

{297:1}

Quam multa arboribus tribuuntur crimina falsa?

{300:1}

Hic ver perpetuum, atque alienis mensibus aestas.

{301:1}

.....Mala furta hominum densis mucronibus arcens Securum defendit inexpugnabilis hortum; Exornatque simul, toto spectabilis anno, Et numero, & viridi foliorum luce nitentum.

_Couleii Pl. l. 6._

{308:1}

Inseritur lauro cerasus, partuque coacto Tingit adoptivus virginis ora pudor.

{313:1} Carol. _Avanti_ not. in cornan. Bapt. Fiera.

{313:2}

Tu sacros Phoebi tripodas, tu sidera sentis, Et casus aperis rerum praesaga futuros.

Te juvat armorum strepitus, clangorque tubarum; Perque acies medias, saevique pericula belli, Accendis bellantum animos; te Cynthius ipse, Te Musae, vatesque sacri optavere coronam: Ipsa suis virtus te spem proponit alumnis, Tantum servatus valuit pudor, & bona fama.

Rapinus.

{313:3} _Daphnephagi_ were such as after eating the leaves of the bay, became inspir'd.

CHAPTER VII.

_Of the infirmities of trees, &c._

So many are the infirmities and sicknesses of trees, and indeed of the whole family of vegetables, that it were almost impossible to enumerate and make a just catalogue of them; and as difficult to such infallible cures and remedies as could be desired; the effects arising from so many, and such different causes: Whenever therefore our trees and plants fail and come short of the fruit and productions we expect of them, (if the fault be not in our want of care) it is certainly to be attributed to those infirmities, to which all elementary things are obnoxious, either from the nature of the things themselves, and in themselves, or from some outward injury, not only through their being unskilfully cultivated by men, and expos'd to hurtful beasts, but subject to be prey'd upon and ruin'd by the most minute and despicable insect, besides other casualties and accidents innumerable, according to the rustick rhyme,

The calf, the wind-shoc and the knot, The canker, scab, scurf, sap and rot,

affecting the several parts: These invade the roots; stony and rocky grounds, ivy, and all climbers, weeds, suckers, fern, wet, mice, moles, winds, &c. to these may be added siderations, pestiferous air, fogs, excessive heat, sulphurous and a.r.s.enic smoak, and vapours, and other plagues, tumours, distortions, lacrymations, _tophi_, gouts, carbuncles, ulcers, crudities, fungosities, gangreens, and an army more, whereof some are hardly discernable, yet enemies, which not foreseen, makes many a bargain of standing-wood (though seemingly fair) very costly ware: In a word, whatsoever is exitial to men, is so to trees; for the aversion of which, they had of old recourse to the _robigalia_ and other Gentile ceremonies: but no longer abus'd by charmers and superst.i.tious fopperies, we have in this chapter endeavoured to set down and prescribe the best and most approved remedies. .h.i.therto found out, as well natural as artificial.

And first, weeds are to be diligently pull'd up by hand after rain, whiles your seedlings are very young, and till they come to be able to kill them with shade, and over-dripping: And then are you for the obstinate, to use the haw, fork, and spade, to extirpate dog-gra.s.s, bear-bind, &c.

And here mentioning shade and dripping, though I cannot properly speak of them as infirmities of trees, they are certainly the causes of their unthriving till remov'd; such as that of the oak and mast-holme, wall-nut, pine and fir, &c. the thickness of the leaves intercepting the sun and rain; whilst that of other trees good, as the elm, and several other.

2. Suckers shall be duly eradicated, and with a sharp spade dexterously separated from the mother-roots, and transplanted in convenient places for propagation, as the season requires.

Here note, that fruit graffed upon suckers, are more dispos'd to produce suckers, than such as are propagated upon good stocks.

3. Fern, is best destroy'd by striking off the tops, as Tarquin did the heads of the poppies: This done with a good wand, or cudgel, at the decrease in the Spring, and now and then in Summer, kills it (as also it does nettles) in a year or two, (but most infallibly, by being eaten down at its spring, by Scotch-sheep) beyond the vulgar way of mowing, or burning, which rather encreases, than diminishes it.

4. Over-much wet is to be drain'd by trenches, where it infests the roots of such kinds as require drier ground: But if a drip do fret into the body of a tree by the head (which will certainly decay it) cutting first the place smooth, stop and cover it with loam and hay, or a cerecloth, till a new bark succeed. But not only the wet, which is to be diverted by trenching the ground, is exitial to many trees, but their repletion of too abundant nourishment; and therefore sometimes there may be as much occasion to use the lancet, as phlebotomy and venaesection to animals; especially if the hypothesis hold, of the superfluous moisture's descent into the roots, to be re-concocted; but where, in case it be more copious than{316:1} can be there elaborated, it turns to corruption, and sends up a tainted juice, which perverts the whole habit of the tree: In this exigence therefore, it were perhaps more counsellable to draw it out by a deep incision, and to depend upon a new supply, than upon confidence of correcting this evil quality, by other medications, to let it perish. Other causes of their sickness (not always taken notice of) proceed from too liberal refreshments and over-watering in dry and scorching seasons; especially in nurseries: The water should therefore be fitly qualify'd, neither brackish, bitter, stagnat, or putrid, sower, acrimonious, vitriolic, arenous and gravelly, churlish, harsh and lean; (I mention them promiscuously) and whatever vicious quality they are perceptibly tinctur'd and impregnate with, being by no means proper drink for plants: Wherefore a very critical examen of this so necessary an element (the very principle, as some think, and only nutriment of vegetables){317:1} is highly to be regarded, together with more than ordinary skill how to apply it: In order to which, the const.i.tution and texture of plants and trees are philosophically to be consider'd; some affecting macerations with dung and other mixtures (which I should not much commend) others quite contrary, the quick and running spring, dangerous enough, and worse than snow-water, which is not in some cases to be rejected: Generally therefore that were to be chosen, which pa.s.sing silently through ponds and other receptacles, exposed to the sun and air, nearest approaching to that of rain, dropping from the uberous cloud, is certainly the most natural and nursing: As to the quant.i.ty, some plants require plentiful watering, others, rather often, than all at once; all of them sucking it in by the root for the most part, which are their mouths, and carry it thence through all the ca.n.a.les, organs and members of the whole vegetable body, digested and qualified so as to maintain and supply their being and growth, for the producing of whatever they afford for the use of man, and other living creatures.

5. The bark-bound are to be released by drawing your knife rind-deep from the root, as far as you can conveniently, drawing your knife from the top downwards half-way, and at a small distance, from the bottom upwards, the other half; this, in more places, as the bulk of the stem requires; and if crooked, cut deep, and frequent in the ham; and if the gaping be much filling the rift with a little cow-dung; do this on each side, and at Spring, February or March: Also cutting off some branches is profitable; especially such as are blasted, or lightning-struck: If (as sometimes also) it proceed from the baking of the earth about the stem, lighten, and stir it.

6. The _teredo_, _cossi_, and other worms, lying between the body and the bark, (which it separates) poyson that pa.s.sage to the great prejudice of some trees; but the holes being once found, they are to be taken out with a light incision, the wound covered with loam; or let the dry-part of the wood (bark and all) be cut: applying only a wash of p.i.s.s and vinegar twice or thrice a week during a month: The best means to find out their quarters, is to follow the wood-p.e.c.k.e.r, and other birds, often pitching upon the stem (as you may observe them) and knocking with their bills, give notice that the tree is infected, at least, between the bark. But there are divers kinds of these ????fa??? of which the te??d?? or _tarmes_ we have mentioned, will sometimes make such a noise in a tree, as to awaken a sleeping man: The more rugous are the _cossi_, of old had in _deliciis_ amongst the epicures, who us'd to fatten them in flower; and this, (as Tertullian, and S. Hierom tells us) was the chief food of the _hierophantae Cereris_; as they are at this day a great _regalo_ in j.a.pan: In the mean time, experience has taught us, that _millipedes_ wood-lice (to be plentifully found under old timber-logs, being dry'd and reduc'd to powder, and taken in drink) are an admirable specific against the jaundies, s...o...b..t, &c. to purifie the blood, and clarifie the sight.

There is a pestilent green-worm which hides it self in the earth, and gets into pots and cases, eating our seedlings, and gnawing the very roots, which should be searched out: And now we mention roots, over-grown toads will sometimes nestle at the roots of trees, when they make a cavern, which they infect with a poysonous vapour, of which the leaves famish'd and flagging give notice, and the enemy dug out with the spade: But this chiefly concerns the gardners mural fruit-trees; though I question not but that even our forest-trees suffer by such pernicious vapours, rats, and other stinking vermine making their nests within them. But of all these, let our industrious planter, (especially the learned favourers of the most refined parts of horticulture) consult the Discourses and experiments of _Sign._ Fran. Redi, Malphigius, Levenhock, Swamerdam, &c. with our own learned Doctors, Lyster, Sloane, Hook, (and other sagacious naturalists) to shew, that none of these diseases and infirmities in plants proceed from any pure accidental, but real cause; _flatus_, venemous liquor, and infections: Which some, even of the minutest animals, are provided with instruments to pierce the very solid substances of trees and plants, and infuse their pestiferous taint; where likewise they leave their eggs, boaring those nestling places with a certain _terebra_, where we find those innumerable perforations which we call worm-eaten; the wider _latebrae_ are made by _erucae_, caterpillars, ants, and bigger insects, raising morbid tumors and excrescences, and preying upon the fruit, as well as on the leaves, buds and flowers, so soon as their eggs are hatch'd, when they creep out of their little caverns in armies, like the Egyptian locusts, invading all that's green, and tender rudiments first, and then attacking the tougher and solider parts of vegetables: To those learned persons above, we may not forget the late worthy and pious Mr. Ray, where in the second part of his treatise, of the _Wisdom of G.o.d in the Creation_, we have a brief, but ingenious account of what concerns this subject, together with what is added about spontaneous productions of these despicable animals, to which I refer the curious.

Trees (especially fruit-bearers) are infested with the measels, by being burned and scorched with the sun in great droughts: To this commonly succeeds lousiness, which is cur'd by boring an hole into the princ.i.p.al root, and pouring in a quant.i.ty of brandy, stopping the orifice up with a pin of the same wood.

Crooked trees are reform'd by taking off or topping the praeponderers, whilst charg'd with leaves, or woody and hanging counterpoises.

Excorticated and bark-bared trees, may be preserved by nourishing up a shoot from the foot, or below the stripped place, and inserting it into a slit above the wounded part; to be done in the Spring, and secur'd from air, as you treat a graff: This I have out of the very industrious Mr. Cook, p. 48. But Dr. Merret brought us in this relation to the Royal Society, that making a square section of the rinds of ash, and sycomore (March 1664,) whereof three sides were cut, and one not, the success was, that the whole bark did unite, being bound with pack-thread, leaving only a scar: But being separated intirely from the tree, namely several parts of the bark, and at various depths, leaving on some part of the bark, others cut to the very wood it self, being tied on as the former, a new rind succeeded in their place; but what was cover'd over beyond the places of incision with diachylon plaister, and also bound as the rest, did within the s.p.a.ce of three weeks, unite to the tree, tho' with some shriveling and scar: The same experiment try'd about Michaelmas, and in the Winter, came to nothing: Where some branches were decorticated quite round, without any union, a withering of the branch beyond the incision, ensu'd: Also a twig separated from a branch, with a sloping cut, and fastn'd to it again in the same posture, bound and cover'd with the former plaister, wither'd in three days time: Among other easie remedies, a cere-cloth of fresh-b.u.t.ter and hony, apply'd whilst the wound is green, (especially in Summer) and bound about with a thrum-rope of moist hay, and rubb'd with cow-dung has healed many: But for rare and more tender trees, after pruning, take purely refined tallow, mingled and well harden'd with a little loamy earth, and horse-dung newly made.

Dr. Plot speaks of an elm growing near the bowling-green at Magdalen-College, quite round disbark'd almost for a yard near the ground, which yet flourishes exceedingly; upon which he dilates into an accurate discourse, how it should possibly be; all trees being held to receive their nutrition between the wood and the bark, and to perish upon their separation; this tree being likewise hollow as a drum, and its outmost surface (where decorticated) dry, and dead. The solution of this phaenomenon (and to all appearance, from the verdant head) could not have been more philosophically resolv'd, than by the hypothesis there produc'd by the Doctor, who a.s.sures me, he was yet deliberating whether the tree being hollow, it might not possibly proceed from some other latent cause, as afterwards he discover'd when having obtain'd permission to open the body of it, he found another elm, letting down its stem all the length of this empty case, and striking root when it came to the earth, from whence it deriv'd nourishment, maintains a flourishing top, and has (till now) pa.s.s'd for a little miracle, as it still may do for a thing extraordinary, and rare enough; considering not only its pa.s.sage, and how it should come there, unless haply some of the _samera_, or seed of the old tree (when pregnant) should have luckily fallen down within the hollow pipe, or (as might be conjectur'd) from some sucker springing of a juicy root: But the strange incorporating of the superior part of the bole, with the old hollow tree which embraces it, not by any perceptible roots, but as if it were but one body with it, whilst the rest of the v.a.g.i.n.ated stem touches no other part of the whole cavity, till it comes to the ground, is surprizing. This being besides very extraordinary, that a tree, which naturally grows taper as it approaches the top, should swell, and become bigger there than it is below. But this the Doctor will himself render a more minute account of in the next impression of that excellent piece of his; nor had I antic.i.p.ated it on this occasion, but to let the world know (in the mean time) how ingenuously ready he is to acknowlege the mistake, as he has been successful in discovering it.

Deer, conies, and hares, by barking the trees in hard Winters, spoil very many tender plantations: Next to the utter destroying them, there is nothing better than to anoint that part which is within their reach, with _stercus humanum_, tempered with a little water, or urine, and lightly brushed on; this renewed after every great rain: But a cleanlier than this, and yet which conies, and even cattle most abhor, is to water, or sprinkle them with tanners liquor, _viz._ that, which they use for dressing their hides; or to wash with slak'd lime and water, altogether as expedient: Also to tye thumb-bands of hay and straw round them as far as they can reach.

8. Moss, (which is an adnascent plant) is to be rubb'd and sc.r.a.p'd off with some fit instrument of wood, which may not excorticate the tree, or with a piece of hair-cloth after a sobbing rain; or by setting it on fire with a wisp of straw, about the end of December, if the season be dry, as they practise it in Stafford-shire; but the most infallible art of emuscation, is taking away the cause, (which is superfluous moisture in clayie and spewing grounds) by dressing with lime.

9. Ivy is destroy'd by digging up the roots and loosning its hold: And yet even ivy it self (the destruction of many fair trees) if very old, and where it has long invested its support, if taken off) does frequently kill the tree, by a too sudden exposure to the unaccustom'd cold: Of the roots of ivy (which with small industry may be made a beautiful standard) are made curiously polish'd, and fleck'd cups and boxes, and even tables of great value. Misselto, and other excrescences to be cut and broken off. But the _fungi_ (which prognosticate a fault in the liver and entrails of trees, as we may call it) is remedied by abrasion, friction, interlucation and exposure to the sun.

10. The bodies of trees are visited with canker, hollowness, hornets, earwigs, snails, &c.

11. The wind-shock is a bruise, and shiver throughout the tree, though not constantly visible, yet leading the warp from smooth renting, caused by over-powerful winds, when young, and perhaps, by subtil lightnings, by which the strongest oaks (and other the most robust trees) are fain to submit, and will be twisted like a rope of hemp, and therefore of old not us'd to kindle the sacrifice. The same injury trees likewise often suffer by rigorous and piercing colds and frosts; such as in the year 1683, rived many stately timber-trees from head to foot; which as the weather grew milder, clos'd again, so as hardly to be discern'd; but were found at the felling miserably shatter'd, and good for little: The best prevention is shelter, choice of place for the plantation, frequent shreading, whilst they are yet in their youth. Wind-shaken is also discover'd by certain ribs, boils and swellings on the bark, beginning at the foot of the stem, and body of the tree, to the boughs. But against such frosts and fire from heaven there is no charm.

12. Cankers, of all other diseases the most pernicious, corroding and eating to the heart, and difficult to cure, whether (caused by some stroak, or galling, or by hot and burning land) are to be cut out to the quick, the scars emplastred with tar mingled with oyl, and over that, a thin spreading of loam; or else with clay and horse-dung; but best with hogs-dung alone, bound to it in a rag; or by laying wood-ashes, nettles, or fern to the roots, &c. You will know if the cure be effected, by the colour of the wounds growing fresh and green, and not reddish: But if the gangreen be within, it must be cured by nitrous, sulphureous and drying applications, and by no means, by any thing of an unctious nature, which is exitial to trees: Tar, as was said, only excepted, which I have experimentally known to preserve trees from the envenom'd teeth of goats, and other injuries; the entire stem smear'd over, without the least prejudice, to my no small admiration: But for over-hot and torrid land, you must sadden the mould about the root with pond-mud, and neats-dung; and by graffing fruit trees on stocks rais'd in the same mould, as being more h.o.m.ogeneous.

13. Hollowness, is contracted, when by reason of the ignorant, or careless lopping of a tree, the wet is suffer'd to fall perpendicularly upon a part, especially the head, or any other part or arms, in which the rain getting in, is conducted to the very heart of the stem and body of the tree, which it soon rots: In this case, if there be sufficient sound wood, cut it to the quick, and close to the body cap the hollow part with a tarpaulin, or fill it with good stiff loam, horse-dung and fine hay mingled, or with well-temper'd mortar, covering it with a piece of tarpaulin: This is one of the worst of evils, and to which the elm is most obnoxious. Old broken boughs, if very great, are to be cut off at some distance from the body, but the smaller, close.