66 Parkes on the Use 



many by beating some off and killing others. This should ]>e 

 often repeated in dry seasons." Page 266 — 269. 



On preserving fruit upon standard-trees from being destroyed 

 by caterpillars, he remarks, that " as most noblemen have, at their 

 seats, engines for extinguishing fires, which are very proper 

 instruments for watering orchards, or such trees as cannot be 

 reached with a brush ; if orchard trees are watered all over 

 with these engines two or three times a week, it will destroy 

 many of the caterpillars. This should be done in the heat of 

 the day, for then they hang the loosest upon the trees ; and the 

 water should be mixed with salt. This work is not only neces- 

 sary when the trees are in blossom, but also before and after/* 

 Page 272. 



*' The HONEY-DEW," says he, " is a glutinous substance, 

 very prejudicial to many kinds of fruit-trees, for it contracts 

 the minute vessels of their most tender parts, and prevents 

 their imbibing and perspiring such fluids as are required in 

 vegetable life. A few days after the honey-dew appears, you 

 may discover small insects on the underside of the leaves that 

 are shrivelled, almost without motion ; yet the heat of one fine 

 day will make them visibly increase both in bulk and strength, 

 and likewise in number." He adds, the honey-dew, " retards 

 the motion of the sap at the extremity of the branches, and this 

 prevents the fruit below from coming to any tolerable perfection, 

 and damages the young branches to such a degree, that they 

 are never after capable of bearing good fruit. Besides, many 

 trees are entirely killed thereby, if proper methods are not used 

 to prevent it. Though different kinds of SMOTiiEii-flies, or 

 those of different colours, are found upon different sorts of trees, 

 yet as they are all either bred from, or feed upon the honey- 

 dew, all trees require the same care and management, to pre- 

 serve them from these evils ; for no tree prospers well when 

 either the honey-dew or smother-flies are on the extremities of 

 its branches." 



The remedy which he proposes for these evils is nothing 

 more than common salt, administered in the following manner : 

 *' If the season be wet, spread common salt all over the border, 



