CHAPTER X 



FRUIT TREES AND THEIR ENEMIES 



JUDGING from old writings, the care and 

 management of orchard trees would appear to 

 have received a considerable amount of atten- 

 tion even as early as the sixteenth century a 

 by no means surprising fact when the value of 

 fruit is taken into account, and that the yield 

 was so dependent on the healthy condition of 

 the trees. In a garden book of the fifteenth 

 century we find some quaint instructions as to 

 the best methods of dealing with diseased 

 orchard trees, while at various later periods the 

 question of repairing injured fruit trees, in- 

 cluding the apple, pear, plum, and mulberry, 

 is so intelligently discussed that we somewhat 

 reluctantly came to the conclusion that the 

 writer knew nearly as much about the subject 

 as we do to-day. 



Fruit trees are liable to many and insidious 

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