236 THE ORCHARD. [MARCH 



"As the growth of the tree will gradually affect the plaster, by 

 raising up its edges next the bark, care should be taken, when that 

 happens, to rub it over with the finger when occasion may require 

 (which is best done when moistened by rain), that the plaster may 

 be kept whole, to prevent the air and wet from penetrating into the 

 wound." 



ADDITIONAL DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING AND USING THE COMPOSI- 

 TION. 



To the foregoing directions for making and applying the composi- 

 tion, it is necessary to add the following : 



" As the best way of using the composition is found by experience 

 to be in a liquid state, it must, therefore, be reduced to the consist- 

 ence of pretty thick paint, by mixing it up with a sufficient quantity 

 of urine and soap-suds, and laid on with a painter's brush. The 

 powder of wood ashes and burnt bones is to be applied as before 

 directed, patting it down with the hand. 



" When trees are become hollow, you must scoop out all the rot- 

 ten, loose, and dead parts of the trunk, till you come to the solid 

 wood, leaving the surface smooth ; then cover the hollow, and every 

 part where the canker has been cut out, or branches lopped off, with 

 the composition , and, as the edges grow, take care not to let the new 

 wood come in contact with the dead, part of which it may be some- 

 times necessary to leave ; but cut out the old dead wood as the new 

 advances, keeping a hollow between them, to allow the new wood room 

 to extend itself, and thereby fill up the cavity, which it will do in 

 time, so as to make, as it were, a new tree. If the cavity be large, 

 you may cut away as much at one operation as will be sufficient for 

 three years. But in this you are to be guided by the size of the 

 wound, and other circumstances. When the new wood, advancing 

 from both sides of the wound, has almost met, cut off the bark from 

 both the edges, that the solid wood may join, which, if properly 

 managed, it will do, leaving only a slight seam in the bark. If the 

 tree be very much decayed, do not cut away all the dead wood at 

 once, which would weaken the tree too much, if a standard, and en- 

 danger its being blown down by the wind. It will therefore be ne- 

 cessary to leave part of the dead wood at first, to strengthen the tree, 

 and to cut it out by degrees as the new wood is formed. If there be 

 any canker, or gum-oozing, the infected parts must be pared off, or 

 cut out with a proper instrument. 



" Some months before the publication of the ' Observations on the 

 Diseases, &c.,in Fruit and Forest Trees,' I had tried the composition 

 in a liquid state, but did not think myself warranted to make it pub- 

 lic until I had experienced its effects through the winter. The suc- 

 cess answered my most sanguine expectations ; and I have used it in 

 that way ever since. By using the composition in a liquid state, 

 more than three-fourths of the time and labor are saved ; and I find it 

 is not so liable to be thrown off as the lips grow, as when laid on in 

 the consistence of plaster ; it adheres firmly to the naked part of the 

 wound, and yet easily gives way as the new wood and bark advance. 



