12 FRUIT BOOK. 



having never as yet had any trees affected by it, can 

 only give the directions of others, which is to cut off 

 at once the limb just below the affected part. 



USE OF SALT, ASHES, AND CLAY. 



We commenced our experiments upon the use of 

 salt and saline substances four years since, particu- 

 larly with the plum tree, and have succeeded to our 

 utmost expectation, having had for the last two sea- 

 sons of 1832 and 1833, good crops of fruit, where 

 heretofore we rarely obtained a crop of one variety. 

 Our land being of a light loam, exceedingly porous, 

 and consequently subject to drought, we applied, 

 early in the spring, upwards of one hundred bushels 

 of leached, or spent ashes, to about two thirds of an 

 acre, for the purpose of bringing the soil into a more 

 retentive nature. We did not, however, observe 

 much effect produced that summer ; but in the follow- 

 ing spring, on applying nearly two hogsheads of salt 

 upon the same land, throwing it broad-cast over the 

 whole ground, and around the trees, turning it un- 

 der the soil a fortnight after spreading it, this ap- 

 peared to make a decided change in the nature of 

 the soil, it being less subject to drought, and having 

 a better crop of fruit generally, particularly of plums, 

 which induced us, in the following spring, to apply 

 around our plum trees, as also the quince, as far as 

 the branches extended, the same material, placing 

 two thirds more to the plum than to the quince. 

 Salt, as well as saltpetre, is destructive to insects 



