140 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



by William Forsythe, F. A. S., published in London in 1802, we 

 have tlie following instructions on the 7'enovalion of decaying and 

 fruitless trees. Mr. Forsythe, in thirty years' practice in culti- 

 vating, pruning and keeping fruit trees, observed that from natural 

 causes, accidents and mismanagement, they were subject to inju- 

 ries of various kinds which diminished their fertilitj'^ or rendered 

 them wholly unproductive. Mr. F.'s mode of operating on fruit- 

 less or worn out trees, was severe pruning by heading in the tops 

 and branches, and an immediate application of the following mix- 

 ture to the body and the end of the pruned branches, laiii on with 

 a painter's brush : 



One bushel of fresh cow dung, * (strong in potash.) 

 One-half bushel of lime, (another alkali.) 

 One-half bushel of wood ashes, (strong in potash.) 

 Two quarts of river sand, (silica.) 

 Sufficient urine and soap-suds, (more alkali.) 

 Sprinkling of the application to the trees with powdered wood 

 ashes and bone dust, (more alkali ) 



The I'^nglish government thought so well of this excellent com- 

 position that, by act of Parliament, he received four thousand 

 pounds sterling for his discovery. This new system of pruning 

 and heading down, which produced such marked results in restor- 

 ing trees to fruitfnlness with the application of his alkaline mix- 

 ture, became so popular in England and on the continent, that its 

 fame reached Russia and India, and in these two climates of ex- 

 treme cold and heat it was applied with equal success to the fruit 

 trees of the respective countries. 



It is evident from the perusal of this treatise, that Mr. Forsythe 

 was quite ignorant of the true cause of the effect of his composi- 

 tion, lie does not appear to have known that its good effects on 

 diseased and neglected trees in exhausted soils, was owing to the 

 pruning and the action of the potash and other alkalies, and that 

 the application of his compound, or wood ashes and other alkaline 

 manures to the soil about the roots, would have been equally or 

 more efficacic)us in restoring the trees to health and fruitfnlness. 



G. B. Boswell, in the transactions of the Americiin Institute of 

 New York, gives the following receipt for a compost to be applied 

 in setting out young trees, for which he is partly indebted to R. 

 L. Pell : three bushels of swamp muck, one bushel night soil, one 



* Parenthesis our own. 



