230 THE FRUIT GARDEN. [^ APRIL. 



come quite vamp and pendulous. Surprised at so 

 sudden a change in their appearances, I had all the 

 trees, except four, washed with pure water the same 

 evening. Nevertheless, they suffered very much; 

 the outer edges of the leaves contracted, so as to 

 form a sort of cup, and the extremities became 

 brown. In short, they decreased both in number 

 and in size. Tlie four trees which I did not wash 

 again with pure water, witliin eight days had hardly 

 a leaf left upon them : yet so tenacious of life were 

 these insect enemies, that they lived even wlien ve- 

 getation had seemingly ceased. 



** For these reasons, I gave over all expectation of 

 .success in their destruction by sea-water ; having 

 ascertained by experiments, that even the smallest 

 portion of it is pernicious to vegetation, when ap- 

 plied to the leaves of plants ; and when applied to 

 the soil, it will be found to be incapable of promot- 

 ing the growth of plants in any degree, excepting 

 in so far as the aqueous part, di\'ested of its salt, is 

 capable of so doing. 



*' I now had recourse to the use of tobacco li- 

 quor, as I had it from the tobacconist, which I di- 

 luted with eight or nine times the quantity of piue 

 water. This had the power of destroying the cater- 

 pillars, whenever it could get at them ; but they are 

 naturally so impervious to water, that I found only 

 a very small progress made in destroying them, by 

 four washings v/ith the engine, in eight days. I 

 then began to use the liquor of a much stronger qua- 

 lity, which I found to answer better ; and I think, 

 that if I had begun, and had used it just as I got it 



