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Article XII. 



[The following Letter was drawn up for the more 

 immediate life of the " Odiham Agriculture 

 Society," who had done the Writer the Honour of 

 electing him an Honorary Member \ — but being 

 thought generally beneficial, its communication is 

 extended.] 



ON THE MEANS OF PRESERVING APPLE BLOSSOM AND 

 ORCHARDS FROM INJURY. 



Sir, Beer f err is y near Taviftock, Devon. 



I Do not recoiled! that yours is a noted cyder 

 county, yet I take it for granted, fome gentle- 

 men have orchards, and the rarer the more valu- 

 able. This parifh, which is my fummer refidence, 

 abounds with orchards and cherry-gardens; the 

 orchards, by their bloflbming this fpring, promifed 

 a much larger quantity of apples than they will 

 actually produce ; not occafioned, however, as the 

 farmers here imagine, by the frofty nights of the 

 firft and fecond of laft month, but by the ravages 

 of an uncommon number of infefts, which have 

 been produced this feafon from a fpecies of black 

 flies in particular, which depofited their eggs in the 

 apple-bud, or bloflbm, at its firft opening; from 

 which eggs were generated th« maggot infects, 



which 



