178 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 3. 



an inch deep about the foot, of the tree, and in the 

 month of March following bury it. For the want 

 of this dung, you must take away the old earth 

 from around the tree and replace it with new, 

 mixed with fine well rotted horse manure. If the 

 yellowness arises from the earth being damp, take 

 horse-dung mixed with water, so as to form a 

 kind of pap, make a trench around the Coot of the 

 tree, pour in the mixture, cover it, and let it thus 

 remain: it will reanimate it. If the yellow leaves 

 arise from a contrary cause, that is, from the soil 

 beino; too light and dry, you must as soon as the 

 month of November arrives uncover the roots, 

 and put above them the scrapings or settlings of a 

 pool, well drained, worn out, and exhausted street 

 mud; hog-dung or other similar manure: these 

 simple and easy means will resuscitate them. 



A tree often becomes yellow from having given 

 too much fruit, and exhausting its substance. In 

 this case you must pull off a part of the fruit and 

 apply fresh nourishment to the roots. 



When a tree appears to languish, make a cir- 

 cle around the foot of it, in which you must put 

 any convenient manure; in trimming it, cat off all 

 superfluous wood, and after having filled up the 

 hole in which you have put the manure, leave na- 

 ture to act, and she will resuscitate it soon. In 

 digging around the tree, keep off' at from two to 

 four feet distance, observing as you approach the 

 tree to dig carefully around the mound in which 

 the roots are formed. 



Sterility. — Open the earth about the foot of the 

 tree, cut off the extremities of the large roots, 

 shorten those that are too long or far off', and all 

 the small ones near the trunk; throw good new 

 earth upon them and cover th'em up. 



3feansto produce fru it from irees which fiau/rish 

 well, but whose fruit becomes blighted almost every 

 year. — There are some trees which are. charming 

 to the sight when in blossom, but which retain 

 none of their fruit: in this case, at least six buck- 

 ets of water thrown around them when in full 

 bloom, will answer a good purpose. If you have 

 not so much water, you may refreshen the tree by 

 sprinkling the buds. When the fall of the blos- 

 soms is in too great an abundance, bleed the tree 

 or prune the roots. 



Inertness of the sap. — In very cold and dry 

 summers in which there is not much rain, it hap- 

 pens that the sap ceases to flow by degrees. You 

 will then see a great portion of the fruit, particu- 

 larly peaches, which have the most need of a 

 large stock of sap to acquire maturity, fall or 

 prove abortive. The only remedy in this case is 

 to open around the foot of* the tree, and to throw 

 in a bucket of water to open the pores and revive 

 the sap, which will prove well that watering and 

 vigilance are necessary in gardening. 



When the spring is dry and cold, it happens 

 often that a peach tree does not shed its blossoms, 

 the flower attaching itself to the small nut of the 

 peach, dries it up and makes it fall; to remedy 

 this, you must bare the roots and throw in buckets 

 of water, and when it is dried up, cover them 

 again with earth, and continue watering them 

 every week during the months of March and 

 April, until you find the fruit safe and well grown; 

 this raises the sap and saves the fruit; it is good to 

 water freely peach and apricot trees during the 

 great heat of summer, and above all, when the 

 fruit is approaching to maturity. VVhen the fruit 



is well grown, the tree must be thinned of those 

 that are superabundant, which not only makes the 

 fruit grow larger but better, it also preserves the 

 vigor of the tree, which would become ruined in 

 two or three years, if you do not proportion the 

 fruit to the strength of the tree. Peaches, necta- 

 rines, and apricots, must be thinned in May. Only 

 a few fruit must be suffered to remain on the weak 

 branches. 



When the heat is great and a continual drought, 

 at the end of July, and during the month of Au- 

 gust, it is good to throw around the foot of the 

 tree, and particularly the peach, a bucket or half 

 bucket of water, so as to rouse the sap and prevent 

 the fruit, from falling half ripe. When you ob- 

 serve the tree languish and the fruit advance very 

 slowly and fall in great numbers, you may be sure 

 it is in the sap: you must then put water to the 

 foot of the tree, for which purpose ycu must make 

 a trench around it at a short distance, so that the 

 water maybe better held, cover the earth with 

 leave;: or straw, and throw water on it, so as to 

 enable the earth to preserve its freshness. 



To give fruit a fine color, about the end of 

 June clip with a scissors those leaves that sur- 

 round the fruit, and when they have grown nearly 

 to their size, remove all their leaves from around 

 them, so that the dew, rain and sun may pene- 

 trate, paying attention to the soil, the weather, 

 and the strength of the fruit, for delicate fruit be- 

 comes scorched if laid bare too soon, and if too 

 late will remain without color and taste. Peaches 

 and apricots should be laid bare only fifteen days 

 previous to their being ripe, otherwise the fruit 

 would become defective and imperfect about the 

 stone. By jetting water with a syringe upon 

 fruit exposed to the sun two or three times a 

 day, you will give it a peculiar and curious 

 color, but at the same time impairthe quality. 



When the severity of the heat occasions the 

 fruit to fall, instead of watering, dig round the 

 roots two inches deep, which fill up with the ashes 

 of wood, and to prevent the .wind from blowing it 

 away, cover this ashes with earth. 



Peaches and apricot trees are liable to what is 

 termed the blight, which is an injury that shows 

 itself by the leaves becoming crimped, shrivelled, 

 dull and ycllow r , they fall about the first rain; you 

 have nothing to do but first to remove all the 

 blighted leaves, so that the new foliage of thesuc- 

 ceeding spring by force of the sap of those which 

 have been blighted, come quicker. 



To remove gum you must with a proper instru- 

 ment cut down to the inner part of the tree, and 

 cover the wound with dry earth tied on with a 

 cloth. 



This is the general method of treating diseased 

 trees in France, which from similarity of climate 

 with that of this country, will apply here. Many 

 persons believe it to be only necessary to plant a 

 tree, and that nature will do all the rest. It is 

 true, we must depend upon nature for the success 

 of our endeavors; but we must recollect that the 

 fruit trees we cultivate, are not indigenous to this 

 climate, anil that our want of skill and judgement 

 in planting and nourishing them, may embarrass 

 the operations of nature m bringing the fruit to 

 perfection. It becomes necessary, therefore, to 

 ensure success, that we should aid nature in her 

 operations, by removing all obstructions to her eff- 

 orts, and furnishing the proper attention and 



