29'3 PRINCIPLES OF GARDENING. [cU. VIII. 



brush immediately after the amputations have been 

 performed, taking care to select a diy day. I prefer 

 this to any composition with a basis of cow-dung 

 and clay, because the latter is always more or less 

 absorbent of moistui'e and is liable to injury by rain 

 and frost, causing alternations of moisture and dry- 

 ness to the wounds, that promote decay rather than 

 their healing, by the formation of new wood and bark. 

 The resinous plaster seldom or never requires re- 

 newal. Mr. Forsyth, the arch advocate of earthy 

 and alkaline plasters, finding that they promoted 

 decay, if applied to the wounds of autumn-pruned 

 trees, recommends this important act of cultivation 

 to be postponed to the spring. Such a procrastination 

 is always liable to defer the pruning until bleeding 

 is the consequence. If a resinous plaster be em- 

 ployed, it excludes the wet, and obviates the objection 

 to autumnal pnming. Mr. Fors}'th's treatment of 

 the trunks and branches of trees, namely, scraping 

 from them all the scaly, dry exuvite of the bark, is 

 to be adopted in every instance. He recommends 

 5 them to be brushed over with a thin liquid com- 

 pound of fresh cow-dung, soap-suds, and urine ; but 

 I veiy much prefer a brine of common salt. Each 

 acts as a gentle stimulus, which is their chief cause 

 of benefit ; and the latter is more efficacious in de- 

 stro}dng insects, and does not, like the other, obstruct 



