FEB.] THE ORCHARD. 135 



the least tending downward. Should there be any mouldy appear- 

 ance or rottenness among the roots, cut such out effectually, and 

 wash the others clean with a weak lye or soap suds. If the ground 

 be wet, place a few flat stones under the places where you cut of 

 the descending roots, to prevent the young roots which may be pro- 

 duced again from about the cuts taking a perpendicular direction, 

 and to give them a lateral inclination. 



As the roots invariably collect the sap from the extreme points, 

 this cutting compels the horizontal ones to work and exert them- 

 selves, and if there be any energy left, they will soon throw out 

 fresh fibres, and thus collect a more congenial sap for the support 

 of the tree and fruit. At the same time, in the filling in of the 

 earth, add a quantity of good rotten manure, and cover the ground 

 thinly over with the same, as far as the roots may be supposed to 

 extend ; wash the stem and branches with soap-suds, or if any 

 worms are perceivable, with the mercurial or corrosive solution, 

 and water the ground round the tree at intervals in very dry wea- 

 ther, 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, animalcules, and the want 

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

 ciously 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 un- 

 dergone, 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 pro- 

 per age for that purpose ; they may be forced into a bearing state, 

 by opening the ground around them, and cutting through a few of 

 their largest roots, but especially the descending ones ; the depri- 

 vation 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 chissel 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. 



