OF FRUIT TREES. $7 



Mr. Knight hns remarked, that they also fail frequent- 

 ly from want of impregnation when the weather is 

 unusually hot and dry, or when cold winds prevail, 

 as he often observed the farina to wither and die on 

 the antherasin such seasons. 



Spring frosts are an enemy, against which perhaps 

 it is most difficult to guard orchard trees. u Dry 

 frosts,'' says Marshall, "are observed to have no other 

 effects than keeping the blossoms back ; consequent- 

 ly, are frequently serviceable to fruit trees. But wet 

 frosts, namely, frosts after a rain, or a foggy air, and 

 before the trees have had time to dry, are very inju- 

 rious even to the buds. An instance is mentioned, in 

 which a flying hazy shower in the evening was suc- 

 ceeded by a smart frost ; that side of the trees, against 

 which the haze drove, was entirely cut off, while the 

 opposite side, which had escaped the moisture, like- 

 wise escaped the effect of the frost. Much, however, 

 may depend on the strength of the blossoms. When 

 the buds form, and the blossoms break forth with un- 

 usual vigour, they are enabled by their own strength 

 to set common enemies at defiance. But, on the con- 

 trary, when the blossoms sicken in the bud, and those 

 which open are weak and languid, scarcely an apple 

 will be produced. The assistance, therefore, required 

 from art, in this case, is by keeping the trees in a 

 healthy, vigorous state, to enable them to throw out a 

 strength of bud and blossom ; and by keeping them 

 thin of wood, to give them an opportunity of drying 

 quickly before the frost sets in." Apple blossoms are, 

 in some seasons, injured by the devastations of an un- 

 common number of insects produced from a species of 

 black flies, which deposit their eggs in the bud at its 

 first opening, and which, by feeding on the heart of 

 the bud, soon occasion it to contract and drop. To 

 remedy this fatal effect, we are advised , to collect 

 heaps of long dung, wet straw, weeds, &c. to dispose 



