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UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 197 



mixed up to-day \vith one pound of flower of 

 brimstone to this was added soft soap, enough 

 to make it adhere when laid on with a painter's 

 brush. It was mixed over the fire, and it may 



:be done so with perfect safety, he says, as it is 

 not inflammable. 



Many insects deposit their eggs in the bark, or 

 in the young buds ; and it is their larvae or cater- 

 pillars that do the greatest mischief. The 

 aphides injure all the varieties of plum ; and 

 there is a coccus sometimes in such quantities on 

 those trees, that in summer every twig is thickly 

 beaded with little red, half-round specks. In 

 spring, the larvae exhaust the trees by sucking 

 out the rising sap. The grub of a little brown 

 beetle destroys the blossom of the pear-trees; and 

 a saw-fly injures the fruit so as to cause it to 

 drop prematurely. In short, almost every kind of 

 fruit tree has its peculiar family of grubs, which, 

 in their larva state, prey on the sap, the leaves, or 

 the flower-buds ; and it is to prevent this that my 

 uncle is going to destroy them by that gas wash. 



Among various enemies of the apple-tree, he 

 shewed me in particular the apple aphis, or 

 American blight, which was not known in this 

 country till the year 1787. It is a very minute 

 insect, covered with a long, cotton-like wool; 

 and fixes itself in the chinks and rough parts of 

 the bark. It has spread throughout the kingdom, 

 and about fifteen years ago destroyed such num- 



s 3 



