CH. VIII.] THE DISEASES OF PLANTS. Q93 



the respiratoiy vessels of the tree. The brine is 

 advautageously inihbed in with a scrubbing, or large j 

 painter's biiish. Some persons recommend a liquid 

 wash, containing, as prominent ingredients, quick- 

 lime and wood ashes, which, as the disease arises 

 from an over-alkalescent state of the sap, cannot but 

 prove injurious, and aggravate the disease. Mr. 

 Forsyth, formerly gardener at Kensington Palace, 

 made a considerable sensation at the close of the 

 last, and at the commencement of the present cen- 

 tury, by the wonderful effects produced upon trees, 

 as he asserted, by the following composition, used as 

 a plaster over the womids from which the decayed 

 or cankered parts had been cut out : — 



One bushel of fresh cow dimg. 



Half a bushel of lime iTibbish ; that from ceilings of 



rooms is preferable, or powdered chalk. 

 Half a bushel of wood ashes. 

 One sixteenth of a bushel of sand ; the three last to 



be sifted fine. The whole to be mixed and beaten 



together until they form a fine plaster 3. 



Mr. Knight, in a very able and sarcastic pamphlet 

 published in 180^, entitled " Some Doubts relative 

 to the Efficacy of Mr. Forsjlh's Plaster," fully 

 exposed tlie quackeiy, perhaps falsehood may not be 

 too harsh a term, of this horticulturist's statements. 

 * Forsyth's Observations on Fruit Trees, p. 68. 



