OF FRUIT TREES. 69 



will soon fill the head of the tree with fine bearing 

 wood. In three years, if properly managed, trees 

 so headed will produce more and finer fruit than a 

 maiden tree that has been planted upwards of 

 twenty years. The method above detailed should 

 be adopted with some caution, for it has been 

 found, that trees will not survive the loss of all 

 their branches, if lopped off in one season ; it is 

 preferable, therefore, to cut and graft them partially 

 every season until the whole is accomplished. 



DIRECTIONS 



For making a composition for curing diseases, defects, and inju- 

 ries in all kinds of fruit and forest trees, and the method of 

 preparing the trees, and la/ing on the composition, by Wil- 

 liam Forsyth. 



Take one bushel of fresh cow-dung, half a bush- 

 el of lime rubbish of old buildings, (that from the 

 ceilings of rooms is preferable) half a bushel of 

 wood-ashes, and a sixteenth part of a bushel of pit 

 or river sand : the three last articles are to be sift- 

 ed fine before they are mixed : then work them 

 well together with a spade, and afterwards with a 

 wooden beater, until the stuff is very smooth, 

 like fine plaster used for the ceiling of rooms. 

 The composition being thus made, care must be 

 taken to prepare the tree properly for its applica- 

 tion, by cutting away all the dead, decayed, and in- 

 jured parts, till you come to the fresh sound wood, 

 leaving the surface of the wood very smooth, and 

 rounding off the edges of the bark, with a draw- 

 knife, or other instrument, perfectly smooth, which 

 must be particularly attended to : then lay on the 

 plaster about one eighth of an inch thick all over 

 the part where the wood or bark has been so cut 

 away, finishing off the edges as thin as possible : 

 then take a quantity of dry powder of wood-ashes, 

 mixed with a sixth part of the same quantity of 

 the ashes of burnt bones : put it into a tin box, 

 with holes in the top, and shake the powder on 



