VI. DISEASES OF FRUIT-TREES. 



bing the part with mercurial ointment will certainly do 

 it j but then you must get at the root as well as at the 

 limbs and the branches: if you take up a young tree 

 that has the cotton-blight, cut the nobs off from the 

 roots, cleanse the tree perfectly well and replant it, and, 

 it is very likely the disease will not return. If it once 

 get complete possession of a large tree, the tree will- 

 soon become useless. 



290. MILDEW, which the French call WHITE 

 BLIGHT, seizes the spring shoots of peach and nectarine 

 trees, makes them white as if dusted over with meal or 

 lime, and fixes itself on spots on the fruit. I have heard 

 of, and have seen tried, tobacco smoke, lime water, and 

 several other things as remedies, all of which I have seen 

 invariably to fail. All you can do, is, to eut off the 

 shoots and leaves that have it, and to suffer others to 

 come out. This blight sometimes comes upon apple- 

 trees. 



$91. LICE. Prodigious quantities of these come 

 upon the points of the shoots of peaches, nectarines, and 

 cherries, which cause them to curl up, and to become 

 black } and, after this, generally, the branches suffer 

 greatly : the only remedy is, to cut these points off as 

 soon as you perceive them beginning to curl. You may 

 also wash the trees, or fumigate with tobacco. 



292. GUM. All stone fruit ; cherries, plums, peaches, 

 nectarines, and apricots, are liable to the gum, which 

 sometimes proceeds from injudicious pruning, and some- 

 times from the tree having but a poor root. It very 



