FEB.] THE ORCHARD. 151 



the mercurial or corrosive solution, and water the ground round the 

 tree at intervals in very dry weather, till you perceive it pushing 

 vigorously. 



There is not a more powerful agent for producing the canker and 

 other disorders than these descending roots. Canker indeed may 

 arise from an improper soil, a vitiated sap, animalculae, and the want 

 of free circulation of the fluids : the last is often caused by inju- 

 diciously shortening too many of the leading branches. The medi- 

 cation before recommended will stop the progress of the evil on the 

 parts to which it is applied ; but the canker may again break out on 

 the other parts of the same tree, and that arises very frequently from 

 the roots striking into a cold and unfriendly soil. 



The fluids being once vitiated by any subterraneous cause, canker 

 is not the only evil ; insects are' invited thereby to deposit their eggs 

 in the bark, which in due time become crawling maggots ; these feed 

 on the sap of the trees, devouring the inner bark and rind as they 

 proceed, until the period of their chrysalis; which having undergone, 

 they take wing and fly off, and in their progress seldom fail to lay 

 the foundation of similar mischief. 



From this may be inferred the necessity of making a judicious 

 choice of proper ground for your fruit-trees, and paying due atten- 

 tion to their cultivation and health ; for it is quite as presumable, if 

 not more so, that the vitiated juices of the trees invite the worms, 

 than that they are the original cause which produces it. 



When any of your fruit-trees are growing extremely luxuriant, 

 and continue to produce no fruit, though having arrived at a proper 

 age for that purpose, they may be forced into a bearing state by open- 

 ing the ground around them and cutting through a few of their 

 largest roots, but especially the descending ones; the deprivation 

 which will arise from this, of their extraordinary resources, which 

 was the cause of their running into such a luxuriancy of wood, will 

 soon bring them into a bearing state ; but be careful that you smooth 

 with a chisel or other sharp instrument, the roots at the amputations, 

 and not have them in a mangled state, which might bring on diseases 

 that probably would destroy the trees. 



The following extracts, taken from a communication made by that 

 ingenious citizen, DOCTOR JAMES TILTON, of Wilmington, Delaware, 

 and published in the first American edition of the Domestic Encydo- 

 pdedia, by Messrs. Birch and Small, Philadelphia, are worthy of at- 

 tention ; and the laudable efforts of that gentleman, both in agricul- 

 tural and horticultural pursuits, are highly meritorious and deserving 

 of emulation. 



" Curculio, a genus of insects belonging to the Coleoptera or Beetle 

 order. The species are said to be very numerous. The immense 

 damage done by an insect of this tribe to the fruits of this country, 

 of which there is no similar account in Europe, has given rise to a 

 conjecture with some naturalists, that we have a peculiar and very de- 

 structive species in America. 



" The manner in which this insect injures and destroys our fruits, 

 is by its mode of propagation. Early in the spring, about the time 

 when the fruit-trees are in blossom, the Curculiones ascend in swarms 



