78 CULTURE AND MANAGEMENT 



application may produce injurious effects upon fruit 

 trees. 



MEANS OF PRESERVING THE HEALTH AND VIGOUR OF 

 FRUIT TREES. 



To promote the health and vigour of fruit trees, 

 Mr. Forsyth recommends the following method, and 

 it has been practised in our country with the most de- 

 cided advantage. Take any quantity of urine and 

 soap suds, and add fresh cow dung, and a little slacked 

 lime, sufficient to bring it to the consistence of very 

 thick white-wash or paint. After having removed all 

 cankery parts, and scraped off the rough bark or moss 

 from the trees, this mixture is to be applied to the 

 stems and branches with a brush, in the same manner 

 as the ceiling or walls of a room are white-washed. 

 This, if done in March or April annually, will effectu- 

 ally destroy the eggs of insects, and prevent moss 

 from growing on the trunk and branches ; it will also 

 contribute to the nourishment of the tree, and render 

 the bark healthy, so that in the course of the first or 

 second summer, a fine new bark of a fresh and green 

 appeal ance, takes the place of the old one. If this 

 application be repeated in autumn, after the fall of the 

 leaves, it will have a salutary tendency in destroying 

 the eggs of numerous insects that hatch in autumn and 

 winter. For the same purpose of Forsyth's mixture, 

 white-washing with lime has been practised, and found 

 very beneficial in producing similar good effects. The 

 application of strong, undiluted soft soap is employed 

 by Mr. Ogden, of Flushing, Long-Island. The soap 

 applied by means of a brush, destroys the moss and 

 softens the bark, and, when washed offby rain, acts as 

 a manure to the roots. When Mr. O. began this pro- 

 cess, his trees were covered with moss and old scaly 

 bark, and bore bad crops ; but in two years all the old 



