OP FRUIT TREES. 57 



f the ground ; year after year, being the prey of 

 caterpillars, and exhibiting the constant appearance 

 of innumerable warts within the outside bark, 

 which, at the time, I suspected was natural instinct 

 in the insect for the propagation of its kind. In 

 the spring of 1793, 1 tried an experiment for giving 

 it new life, as follows : very early in the season, I 

 directed my gardener with a hoe to cleanse the 

 outside bark of such excrescences as might bear 

 the operation with little difficulty. In the next 

 place, I directed him to raise a wall of small stones 

 round the tree, at the distance of one foot, and per- 

 haps nine inches high, and then to fill the cavity 

 with manure from the resource of compost. The 

 effect in the succeeding season was truly worthy 

 of notice. The warts disappeared, the bark clean 

 and thrifty, and the tree so loaded with fruit as 

 that about one third of the boughs broke and came 

 to the ground with the cumbersome weight. Com- 

 paratively no caterpillars since, and, on an average, 

 a very plentiful crop of fruit yearly. I was led to 

 the experiment by taking notice of a pear tree that 

 had been in a very similar situation, and had been 

 resuscitated in a similar manner." 



There is not, perhaps, in nature a more fertiliz- 

 ing application than the liquid substance which is 

 left at the bottom of stercoraries arid barn-yards, 

 after the more solid substance has been removed. 

 This effervescing mixture contains the very essence 

 of the food of plants, and it might be carried out 

 in tight carts or casks, especially in a dry season, 

 and emptied about the trunks and roots, in the 

 cool hours of morning and evening, .but on no ac- 

 count during the heat of a summer's day. The 

 planter, however, ought to be apprized, that the 

 process of manuring must not be carried to excess, 

 as too great a stimulus applied to trees, facilitates 

 the luxuriant growth of wood, and renders the 

 branches less productive of fruit: or the trees may 



