INSECTS AND DISEASES. 145 



the land has already been well limed, enrich it with muck, 

 manure or ground bones, always striving to add some 

 new ingredient to the soil. The ground should be rich 

 and mellow. Additional vigor may also be given the tree 

 by scraping the stem and lower branches with a blunt- 

 edged instrument like a currying-knife, used by tanners 

 in dressing their leather. This will remove all old, rough 

 bark, and tend to loosen the principal coat, which is often 

 of great advantage. A still further benefit will accrue 

 by washing the stem and main branches with a strong 

 solution of whale-oil soap, or soap-suds, which are not 

 only good fertilizers, but cleanse the tree, and drive away 

 insects. An ordinary whitewash will also be beneficial. 

 Follow this up with a little judicious pruning, and you 

 have done all that seems at present practicable towards 

 preserving, if not curing, your affected trees. In prun- 

 ing, all weak and unhealthy, as well as all dead, limbs 

 should be removed. Those left may also be shortened 

 in the operation if you are not quite sure the supply of 

 nourishment from the roots will be quite abundant to 

 vigorously sustain the top. The object of all this treat- 

 ment is to obtain and maintain a constant and healthy 

 circulation of sap throughout the tree, and thus give such 

 strength and tone to its vital powers as shall be able to 

 resist and repel disease. 



Kecent information and observation confirms me in 

 the belief that the Yellows disease is largely due to un- 

 healthy seed and buds. Until very recently the im- 

 portance of having sound seed for the nursery was not 

 appreciated, and the avarice of nurserymen on the one 

 hand, and canners and evaporators on the other, seems 

 to be justly chargeable with the spread if not the origin 

 of the disease. The seed of the fruit used at these man- 

 ufactories could be had almost for a song, and was near 

 at hand ; while the seed of natural fruit was much more 

 difficult to procure, and cost more than double as much. 

 The temptation to buy cheap kind was great. The evil 



