APPLE TREES. 275 



APPLE TREES. 



<( Inutilesque falce ramos amputans 

 Feliciores inserit." Horace. 



MANY a time have I helped to cut away the 

 branches of decaying apple trees, and to insert 

 healthy grafts in their places; hoping to restore the 

 tree to the sound and fertile state in which it once 

 had been. Revolving seasons did but tend to show 

 that I had completely lost my time ; for the Ame- 

 rican bug, supposed to have been unknown formerly, 

 in this country, attacked my labours in such for- 

 midable array, that nothing could withstand its fury. 



Every lover of the orchard must have observed 

 this white pestilence in the enclosures sacred to 

 Pomona. It is seen on the branches and on the 

 bole of the apple tree in the month of June, when it 

 gives them the appearance of being dotted over 

 with little patches of a downy white. 



Long ago I turned my thoughts to the extermi- 

 nation of the spoliator, which had nearly rendered 

 the choicest parts of the orchard a sickly, sad. un- 

 profitable waste. 



I began by trying to make the branches, upon 

 which these diminutive harpies had settled, as dis- 

 agreeable to them as it were possible, hoping by this 

 manoeuvre to starve them out of house and home. 

 With this in view, I applied unctuous preparations to 

 the injured parts of the trees; but finding, in the long 

 run, that this availed me nothing, I made a decoction 

 from walnut leaves, and washed the branches well 

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