METHOD OP REMOVING BLIGHT. 27-5 



Such is the American blight when left unmolested ; 

 but as soon as it makes its appearance on a tree, the 

 xitmost care should be taken to clean every part of the 

 bark with a hard brush, and some searching wash ; 

 for unless this be done, it is very likely to spread over 

 all the trees in the orchard or neighbourhood. It is 

 even considered better to sacrifice two or three much 

 infected trees entirely, than to allow this pest to spread. 

 When the blight has made considerable inroads on a tree, 

 and has penetrated too deeply to be removed by a brush, 

 a method may be employed such as is recommended in 

 the following extract from the work already quoted : 



" The same unknown decree which regulates the in- 

 crease and decrease of all created beings, influences this 

 insect ; yet wet seasons, upon the whole, seem genial 

 to its constitution. In the hot, dry summer of 1825. it 

 was abundant everywhere ; in the spring of 1826, which 

 was unusually fine and dry, it abounded in such incre- 

 dible luxuriance, that many trees seemed at a short 

 distance as if they had been whitewashed ; in the en- 

 suing summer, which was a very dry and hot one, this 

 cottony matter so entirely disappeared, that to super- 

 ficial observation the malady was not in existence ; 

 and it did not become manifest again until September, 

 when, after the rains of that season, it re-issued in fine, 

 cottony patches, from the old nodes in the trees. Many 

 remedies have been proposed for removing this evil, 

 efficacious, perhaps, in some cases, upon a small scale ; 

 but when the injury has existed for some time, and 

 extended its influence over the parts of a large tree, 

 I apprehend it will take its course and the tree die. 

 Upon young plants, and in places where a brush can be 

 applied, any substance that can be used in a liquid 

 state to harden into a coat, insoluble by rain, will as- 

 suredly confine the ravages of the creature, and smother 

 it. I have very successfully removed this blight from 

 young trees, and from recently attacked places in those 

 more advanced, by an easy application. Melt about 

 T 2 



