234 AN AMERICAS' FARMER IX EXGLAXD. 



The Hereford orchards suffer much more from moss, parasite?, 

 and insects, and less pains are taken to guard against them or to 

 destroy them than is usual in New England. There is a fine 

 moss that will not easily be detected, that often collects upon the 

 branches, and, diverting the juices of the tree to its own nourish- 

 ment, eventually, if not removed, destroys the bark ; and limbs 

 are seen frequently thus denuded of their natural defense, and the 

 wood consequently decaying. This is doubtless a common cause 

 of organic disease. The ordinary preventive and remedy for 

 every thing of this sort is to wash the trunk and principal limbs 

 of the tree every year with a weak lye in which it is a good 

 plan to put a little sulphur all insects having a particular repug- 

 nance to it.* If there is much dead, scaly bark, it should be first 

 rubbed or scraped off. 



Trees should be allowed to branch low and naturally. The 

 "trimming up" and unnatural exposure to the sun of the trunk 

 of the pear-tree is known to particularly predispose it to a most 

 fatal malady. Where trees are properly managed while young, 

 it will never be necessary to prune their limbs in our climate ; 

 and there can scarcely ever be a case where the cutting off a limb 

 larger than a man's arm will not be likely to do more harm than 

 good. Wherever it is done, or wherever a large branch has been 

 blown off, the stump should be squared off neatly, and a salve of 

 clay and cow-dung spread over it and secured upon it by a cap 

 of canvas or sheet-lead. Smaller stumps should be covered with 

 paint, or with a coating of shellac dissolved in alcohol. 



Too rapid and succulent growth, making imperfectly formed 

 wood, through which the future processes of the growth of the 

 tree or the fruit formation will be inefficiently performed, is occa- 



solyed in water. A mild solution of sulphate or muriate of ammonia has a similar effect, 

 but must be used with care. 

 * 1 Ib. of potash, or 1 quart soft soap, and 4 oz. sulphur, to 1 gallon of water. 



