30 



DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING 



COMPOSITION, GRAFTING CLAY, ETO, 



FOR USE ON FRUIT TREES. 



The British Parliament gave Mr. Forsyth a valuable pre- 

 mium for the following important directions for making a 

 composition for curing diseases, defects, and injuries in all 

 kinds of fruit and forest trees, and the method of preparing 

 the trees, and laying on the composition : 



Take one bushel of fresh cow-dung, half a bushel of lime 

 rubbish of old buildings (that from the ceilings of rooms is 

 preferable), half a bushel of wood ashes, and a sixteenth 

 part of a bushel of pit or river sand ; the three last articles 

 are to be sifted fine before they are mixed ; then work them 

 well together with a spade, and afterward with a wooden 

 beater, until the stuff is very smooth, like fine plaster used 

 for ceilings of rooms. 



The composition being thus made, care must be taken to 

 prepare the tree properly for its application, by cutting away 

 all the dead, decayed, and injured part, till you come at the 

 fresh sound wood, leaving the surface of the wood very 

 smooth, and rounding off the edges of the bark with a draw- 

 knife, or other instrument, perfectly smooth, which must be 

 particularly attended to ; then lay on the plaster about an 

 eighth of an inch thick, all over the part wheie the wood or 

 bark has been so cut away, finishing off the edges as thin as 

 possible. Then take a quantity of dry powder of wood 

 ashes mixed with a sixth part of the same quantity of the 

 ashes of burnt bones ; put it into a tin box with holes in the 

 top, and shake the powder on the surface of the plaster till 

 the whole is covered with it, letting it remain for half an 

 hour to absorb the moisture ; then apply more powder, rub- 

 bing it on gently with the hand, and repeating the applica- 

 tion of the powder till the whole plaster becomes a dry, 

 smooth surface. 



