OF J'RUIT TREES. 81 



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

 grafted. Sometimes we see trees so far gone in de- 

 cay, that their productiveness no longer repays their 

 incurnbrance of the soil. How injudicious, in such 

 case, is the conduct of the proprietor, who permits 

 such trees to remain year after year, imbibing 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 avoid- 

 ed. "I have seen several orchards," observes our au- 

 thor, "in which the trees were almost entirely subdued 

 by this vegetable vermin. Some of the trees with, 

 perhaps, only one bough left alive, aud others entire- 

 ly killed, and yet suffered 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 culpable 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 blossoms 

 of trees. Easterly winds, accompanied with fogs, oft- 

 en produce blights ; the buds are nipped, and the ten- 

 der vessels burst, innumerable insects soon appear, 

 and the branches become withered. "^y accident," 

 says Dr. Mease, "Mr. Cooper, of New Jersey, discov- 

 ered some years since, that a tree upon which a num- 

 ber 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 observed that he had neglected to defend it 

 last year. Philosophers may speculate as to the the- 

 ory of the operation of the iron, and cause of the 

 blast, but practical men will be contented with a koowl- 

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