viii TREE WOUNDS AND DISEASES 



obnoxious." Again : " Cankers, caused by some 

 stroke or galling, are to be cut out to the quick, 

 the scars emplaistered with tar mingled with 

 oil, and over that a thin spreading of loam ; 

 or else with clay and horse dung, but best with 

 hog's dung alone." 



Miller, in his Gardener s Dictionary, published 

 in 1737, and Dicks, in a work bearing the 

 same title which appeared thirty years later, 

 refer to wounds and diseases in forest and fruit 

 trees ; while Forsyth and Pontey, who wrote 

 about the beginning of last century, would 

 appear to have followed Evelyn in their methods 

 of dealing with injuries to stem and branch. 

 The Government made a grant of 3000 to 

 Forsyth on condition of his making public the 

 secret of his composition for repairing injuries 

 to the stems of trees. The said composition 

 consisted of fresh cow-dung, old lime, wood 

 ashes, and sand, dusted over with the ashes of 

 burnt bones. Though, perhaps, little can be 

 said in favour of such a dressing, yet his direc- 

 tions for the cutting and scooping out of 

 decayed wood and protecting the wound until 

 covered with fresh bark are worthy of all com- 



