BOOK OF FRUITS. 25 



rounding off the edges of the bark with a 

 sharp drawing knife ; then laj the plaster over 

 the part cut away. In hollows of trees, you 

 must scoop out all the rotten, loose, and dead 

 parts, till you come to the sound wood, and 

 then apply the composition as above. With 

 regard to the destruction of blighting insects, 



O S O 



the practice of burning weeds, wet straw, hay, 

 &c. to the windward of trees, particularly 

 when sulphur is added, is probably as good a 

 method as can be adopted. Wood ashes 

 sprinkled upon the leaves of pear trees, infest- 

 ed by the slimy slug, particularly if it is done 

 during wet and drizzly weather, we have 

 found very effective in destroying them. The 

 canker which destroys many of our fruit trees, 

 is said by Scotch gardeners, to be owing to a 

 stintiness that takes place in the trees from a 

 bad sub-soil. With regard to the insects that 

 infest trees, we consider the borer the most 

 destructive. The Philadelphia Horticultural 

 Society awarded to a Mr Snyder, the premi- 

 um for the best assortment of fruits exhibited 

 at their show. This man had been in the 

 habit of placing ashes of anthracite coal about 

 the roots of his fruit trees, and to this circum- 



