10 FRUIT BOOK. 



The genus of insects called Aphis, or green fly, one 

 or more species being found upon nearly all our va- 

 rieties of fruit trees, particularly upon those that are 

 young, are very troublesome. They lodge and live 

 on the points of the young succulent shoots, distort- 

 ing the leaves and checking the growth. Various 

 washings, compositions, and powderings have been 

 applied for their destruction, among them are the 

 following : Syringing with tobacco water, lime wa- 

 ter, fine air-slacked lime mixed with soot, and strewed 

 over the trees in a dewy morning, burning haulm or 

 straw sprinkled with sulphur to windward of the in- 

 fected trees. These are generally considered good 

 remedies, but the most effectual in our practice, of 

 late, has been the whale oil soap mixture for the de- 

 struction of most insects that infest our trees. The 

 slimy slug, found upon the leaves of our pear trees, 

 may be effectually destroyed by the application of 

 wood ashes, thrown upon the leaves during moist 

 weather. The canker, a disease which injures many 

 trees, causing the bark to grow rough and scabby, 

 and turning the wood into a rusty brown color, is 

 said by some to be owing to a stintiness that takes 

 place in the trees from a bad sub-soil. We appre- 

 hend that this disease is often brought on by injudi- 

 cious pruning, leaving the wounds ragged, and there- 

 by admitting water into the wood, which soon begins 

 to decay ; and also from injuries sustained by the 

 bark being bruised by ladders while gathering the 

 fruit. In careless pruning, the dead shoots are often 

 left upon the tree, throughout the summer, which 



