174 FRUIT-GARDENING. 



checked on its first appearance, by cutting off and immediately 

 burning the injured branches. Generally speaking, careful 

 pruning, cleaning the bark all over with a brush, applying soap 

 or tobacco-water to the leaves, and occasionally putting good 

 earth and good manure to the roots, will remedy most diseases 

 in fruit-trees. Removing them from a bad to a better soil 

 will, of course, eifect this, where it proceeds from a poorness* 

 of land ; for the old adage, " Remove the cause, and the effect 

 will cease," will be here exemplified. To cure the oozing of 

 the gum, nothing more is necessary than to cut away the dis- 

 eased parts of the bark ; and by thus assisting nature in cast- 

 ing out the excrementitious or noxious juices, a complete cure 

 may be effected. 



When a tree is affected by mildew, let it be immediately 

 sprinkled with soapsuds, and then be dusted over with sulphur 

 and tobacco-dust, or snuff; at the same time dig around the 

 tree, and examine the soil and subsoil ; if it be wet and can- 

 kery, it should be taken away, and replaced with good healthy 

 soil, and the ground drained. On the contrary, if the ground 

 be dry, give it a plentiful watering. The same remedy may 

 serve as a preventive of the extension of blight, if applied in 

 time. When any canker is observed, the part affected must, 

 at the time of pruning, be cut clean out, and the part thus 

 dressed be pared, so that no water can lodge in the wound. 

 When this is done, let a quantity of soot be mixed with 

 water, and a little train-oil well worked among it, but so that 

 the mixture finally remains stiff. This may be plastered over 

 all the wounds that have been pruned. The application of this 

 mixture keeps out the wet from the wounds, where it would 

 be likely to lodge, and both the soot and oil promote vegeta- 

 tion. When trees are cankery from having a bad subsoil, it is 

 in vain to apply any remedy till the ground is properly drained, 

 some fresh soil mixed with the natural soil, and the tree 

 replanted. When trees are known to be so situated as -to 

 be particularly liable to the attacks of insects or disease, 

 they should be attended to at the time of winter or early 



