APPLE TREES. 275 
APPLE TREES. 
 Inutilesque falce ramos amputans 
Feliciores inserit.”’ Horace. 
Many a time have I helped to cut away the 
branches of decaying apple trees, and to insert 
healthy grafts in their places; hoping to restore the 
tree to the sound and fertile state in which it once 
had been. Revolving seasons did but tend to show 
that I had completely lost my time; for the Ame- 
rican bug, supposed to have been unknown formerly, 
in this country, attacked my labours in such for- 
midable array, that nothing could withstand its fury. 
Every lover of the orchard must have observed 
this white pestilence in the enclosures sacred to 
Pomona. It is seen on the branches and on the 
bole of the apple tree in the month of June, when it 
gives them the appearance of being dotted over 
with little patches of a downy white. 
Long ago I turned my thoughts to the extermi- 
nation of the spoliator, which had nearly rendered 
the choicest parts of the orchard a sickly, sad, un- 
profitable waste. 
I began by trying to make the branches, upon 
which these diminutive harpies had settled, as dis- 
agreeable to them as it were possible, hoping by this 
manceuvre to starve them out of house and home. 
With this in view, I applied unctuous preparations to 
the injured parts of the trees; but finding, in the long 
run, that this availed me nothing, I made a decoction 
from walnut leaves, and washed the branches well 
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