DRESSINGS FOR WOUNDS 111 



septic, and if it had the power of persisting and 

 of preventing checking or weathering, it would 

 be an ideal wound dressing. On quick -healing 

 wounds it can be used with great satisfaction, as 

 we shall discover later ; and it is a question if it 

 would not pay to thoroughly spray trees, from 

 which many small limbs have been cut, with the 

 mixture. This advice has other recommendations 

 than its suggestion for the preserving of wounds, 

 for Bordeaux mixture is an excellent general fun- 

 gicide; it cleans the trunks and branches of lichen 

 or "moss;" and it probably exerts the same in- 

 fluence as the washing of trees in softening the 

 bark and preventing the parts from becoming 

 bark -bound (see page 78). 



Paint and tar are the dressings most universally 

 recommended. Tar and coal-tar are popular with 

 foresters, but it is certain that they often injure 

 the cambium and bark of fruit trees. Dressings 

 of tar, and even bandages of tarred paper, made 

 to protect plants from borers, often destroy the 

 bark, particularly on young trees. Des Cars 

 strongly advises coal-tar for forest trees, but 

 makes this remark respecting its use on fruit- 

 trees: "The application of coal-tar should not be 

 made except with considerable caution in the 

 treatment of wounds on drupaceous fruits (cher- 

 ries, peaches, plums, etc.), and especially on the 

 plum tree. It has often been observed that the 

 bark of fruit-trees of this class has suffered from 



