82 CULTURE AND MANAGEMENT 



circulation of the sap. The slips are next to be 

 bound quite tight with rope-yarn, and the compo- 

 sition of Forsyth, or a mixture of loam and cow- 

 dung, must be applied, and this covered with a 

 coarse cloth. This method of treatment has been 

 successfully practised ; the slips adhere closely, 

 and, being full of sap, soon become firm and smooth. 

 Instead of bark slips, small twigs may be success- 

 fully applied in a similar manner. 



SPRING FROSTS, AND OTHER CAUSES AFFECTING THE 

 BLOSSOMS. 



Every cultivator of fruit trees has experienced 

 more or less disappointment in his expected crop of 

 apple, pear, and other fruit, trees, after having ex- 

 hibited the fairest prospect in the vernal season. 

 While in full blossom, and the fruit just beginning to 

 form, the petals are cast off, like the dead leaves in 

 autumn. This incident is said to be occasioned by 

 warm and drying winds, by which the vigour of the 

 trees is diminished. In one instance it appears that 

 a remedy has been successfully applied, and the loss 

 and inconvenience prevented. J. Sowerby, esquire, 

 in the spring of 1815, observed that the drying 

 winds generally succeeded the blossoming of his 

 fruit trees ; the whole used to be blown off about 

 the time of the setting of the young fruit. Deem- 

 ing it probable that a good dose of water at the 

 roots would strengthen the tree, and save the fruit, 

 the experiment was tried, and the good effect was 

 perceived in twenty-four hours; the young fruit 

 then resisted the attack of the winds, and a large 

 crop was produced. Not only were the trees ena- 

 bled to produce their fruit in abundance, but also to 

 increase them in size to nearly double. The blos- 

 soms of apple trees are liable to be injured or de- 

 stroyed by various other causes; as severe cold, a 

 hazy state of the atmosphere, frosts, and insects of 



