OF FRUIT AND FOREST TREES. 411 



Royal Gardens y Kensington, May 11, 1791. 



Directio?is for making a Composition for curing Diseases, De- 

 foots, and Injuries, in all Kinds of Fruit and Forest Trees, 

 and the Method of ■preparing the Trees and laying on the 

 Composition, hy William Forsyth. 



' Take one bushel of fresh cow-dung, half a bushel 

 of lime-rubbish of old buildings (that from the ciel- 

 ings of rooms is preferable), half a bushel of wood 

 ashes, and a sixteenth part of a bushel of pit or 

 river sand : the three last articles are to be sifted 

 fine before they are mixed ; then work them well 

 together with a spadfc, and afterwards with a wood- 

 en beater, until the stuff is very smooth, like fine 

 plaster used for the cielings of rooms. 



The Composition being thus made, care must be 

 taken to prepare the tree properly for its applica- 

 tion, by cutting away all the dead, decayed, and 

 injured part, till you come to the fresh sound wood, 

 leaving the surface of the wood very smooth, and 

 rounding off the edges of the bark with a draw- 

 knife, or other instrument, perfectly smooth, which 

 must be particularly attended to ; then lay on the 

 plaster about one eighth of an inch thick, all over 

 the part where the wood or bark has been so cut 



