GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF ORCHARDS. 175 



The Twig Blight. In many localities of the West, and 

 occasionally of the East, this scourge of apple-orchards has 

 appeared. In some instances, it has scarcely attracted at- 

 tention. The true cause of the blight has not yet been dis- 

 covered. Most pomologists conjecture and guess that some 

 noxious insect is the cause of the great injury sustained 

 by the trees. Still, repeated examinations with magnifying- 

 glasses have revealed no evidences of the work of insects, 

 as no stings, Iarva3, or eggs have been discovered. 



The most satisfactory explanation is the rather tantalizing 

 one attributing the death of the twigs to the invasion of 

 minute parasitic plants fungi. Then, if fungi may be re- 

 lied on as the true scourge, we have a remedy, which con- 

 sists of thorough cultivation of the soil with scarifiers, a 

 liberal top-dressing with lime and wood ashes, and a proper 

 preparation of the twigs for cold weather, by pinching the 

 terminal buds or clipping the luxuriant branches before the 

 growing season has ended, so that the new wood may be 

 thoroughly matured before cold weather. 



Swine confined near Fruit-trees. When swine are con- 

 fined in a pen around fruit-trees, they should be watched 

 closely, lest they strip all the bark from the trees. More 

 than this, the pen should not be kept around one tree over 

 ten to fifteen successive days. Fattening swine that do 

 not receive a supply of grass, or fruit, or vegetables, will 

 often devour every mouthful of bark that they can reach, 

 whether it is found on the roots or the body of a tree. 

 Strips of boards may be nailed firmly to a tree to protect 

 the bark from swine. We have often heard it remarked 

 by old men, that " it is sure death to a fruit-tree if swine 

 are yarded around, and allowed to root much about it, and 

 to sleep near the body of it." 



That this is not always the effect of yarding swine 

 around fruit-trees, will appear from what we have to state 



