Dressing Fruit -Trees with GisJnirst Conipotmd. 283 



fruit-trees are subjected), I give you the results of some trials M'ith Gis- 

 hurst, made by me last spring on young orchard-trees. This orchard 

 has been planted for the last six years : and so little progress have the 

 trees made, that I was really astonished to behold the hard, cankery appear- 

 ance they had, and was led to make use of my magnifier to investigate the 

 matter more closely ; when, to my surprise, I discovered under the bark 

 Episema cxndeocephala. E. corticella Linnaeus denominates the pest of 

 Pomona, and not forgetting CurcuUo vastator of {Marsha??i). Most of 

 the trees of another orchard of older date were on their Avay to the 

 grave, from the effects of Eriosoma laiiigera. Its generic characters are, 

 having an abdomen (belly) without tubercles ; antennae, or horns, short and 

 thread-form ; and the whole more or less cottony or tomentose. The pres- 

 ence of these insects is shown by the white cottony matter in the cracks and 

 excrescences of apple-tree branches in spring. When crushed, they exude 

 a reddish fluid. These insects are injurious by piercing the sap-vessels of 

 the tree, sucking the juice, and causing wounds which ulcerate, and finally 

 destroy the branch attacked, by corroding through all the sap-vessels. The 

 cottony matter is abundant, and, wafted to other trees, conveys to them 

 the infection by bearing with it the eggs or embryo insect. Such, however, 

 is not the exclusive mode of diffusing the disease ; for although the females 

 are usually wingless, yet some are probably produced with wings at the 

 season propitious to colonization. The males are uniformly winged. In 

 winter, most of these insects retire under ground, and prey upon the roots 

 of the apple-trees. Trees thus ravaged at all seasons will soon be killed, if 

 prompt, vigorous remedies are not adopted. 



But let us return to the subject, — Gishurst Compound. The young 

 orchard-trees were treated with it at the rate of six ounces to the gallon 

 of soft rain-water. In this instance, I did not give any after-washing with 

 water. This caused a few buds from weak trees to drop off, but left more 

 than sufficient for any crop, and made the wood of the trees look clean and 

 healthy. In one part of the orchard, I made a solution for some of the 

 trees that were in a very sickly condition, with eight ounces to the gallon 

 of water, without any after-washing with water. In a few cases where the 

 trees were very sickly, a few limbs showed the effect in the buds falling. 

 In this case, it was only on the sickly trees that it showed its effects. Some 



