STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 309 



utmost importance. So great are its ravages in Illinois that the loss 

 from its depredations is estimated at nearly five millions of dollars an- 

 nually. The means of overcoming it are simple. Take a 50-gallon 

 barrel; into it put 32 gallons of water; add one-third pound London 

 purple, or one-fourth pound Paris green. These poisons should be 

 thoroughly dissolved in water before adding. With a force pump and 

 hoze and nozzle made for the purpose, spray the trees affected, using 

 about one pail of the poisoning mixture to a tree. This should be 

 done directly after the falling of the blossoms, and then again in two 

 weeks, or before the little apples hang down. 



When the trees grow old, pigs are a good thing to keep among them. 

 For aphis or green lice on the new growth, boil up tobacco stems, and 

 while the liquid is warm dip the affected limbs in and keep immersed 

 for a few seconds, and repeat in two or three days. Very strong warm 

 soap-suds will answer. 



Trap and poison pocket gophers. 



OLD ORCHARDS. 



Now I will address a few lines to the orchardist who already has an 

 orchard or a part of one. 



If you have some old, sickly trees of Duchess or Wealthy, cut all 

 the sickly limbs from the Duchess about two feet from the trunk or 

 main branches, cover the wounds with wax, wash the bodies well with 

 hot soap suds or with a whitewash made as follows : put into a barrel 

 one peck of lime and two pounds of sulphur; pour onto the mixture 

 four pails of warm water; stir till well mixed. Wash the trunk and 

 large limbs of the tree with this while hot, using an old broom for the 

 purpose. Manure them well to a distance of from four to ten feet 

 from the trees. Cut your old Wealthy off at the ground and let new 

 branches spring up. In four years you will have good bearing trees. 

 Save the seeds from the largest and latest Duchess apples. Plant 

 them and care for the young trees that grow from them. 



Grafting wax may be made as follows: Melt one pound of white 

 resin very slowly ; take from the stove and stir in one tablespoonful 

 of turpentine. Then with constant stirring pour in alcohol slowly 

 until the mass is about as thick as syrup — about five ounces of alcohol 

 to one pound of resin. Another wax is: tallow, 1 ounce; beeswax, 

 1 ounce; resin, 2 ounces; melted together. Always wax a wound as 

 soon as it becomes dry. In using this wax in cool weather, keep in a 

 bucket of warm water. 



