OF FRUIT TREES. 77 



which now wear their second top. The first tops 

 being worn out, were cut off, and the stumps saw- 

 grafted. Sometimes we see trees so far gone in , 

 decay, that their productiveness no longer repays 

 their incumbrance of the soil. How injudicious, in 

 such case, is the conduct of the proprietor, who 

 permits such trees to remain year after year, im- 

 bibing and wasting the substance of his soil! Moss 

 is chiefly, perhaps, owing to the nature of the soil, 

 and cannot be altogether prevented ; but it may in 

 most cases, be checked, and its evil effects in a great 

 measure avoided. " I have seen several orchards," 

 observes our author, " in which the trees were al- 

 most entirely subdued by this vegetable vermin. 

 Some of the trees with, perhaps, only one bough 

 left alive, and others entirely killed, and yet suffer- 

 ed to remain, an incumbrance to the ground, and a 

 disgrace to the country." It would appear, by the 

 above observations of Mr. M., that the same culpa- 

 ble neglect in the management of fruit trees prevails 

 in England as in our own country. 



Blight, says another writer, means, the effects of 

 cold winds, or hoar-frosts on the foliage and blos- 

 soms of trees. Easterly winds, accompanied with 

 fogs, often produce blights; the buds are nipped, 

 and the tender vessels burst, innumerable insects 

 soon appear, and the branches become withered. 

 " By accident," says Dr. Mease, " Mr. Cooper of 

 New Jersey, discovered some years since, that a 

 tree upon which a number of iron hoops and other 

 articles of iron had been hung, remained free from 

 blight, while all the rest suffered severely. Since 

 that year he has constantly encircled two or three 

 branches of every tree with an iron hoop, and with 

 uniform success. As a proof, he pointed out one 

 tree with a withered limb near the top, and ob- 

 served, that he had neglected to defend it last year. 

 Philosophers may speculate as to the theory of the 

 operation of the iron, and cause of the blast, but 



