On Blight. 335 



blight it shall be. In very hot weather you may now and then 

 see this blight on the wing ; it has just the look of a bit of 

 cotton, or a downy seed, floating in the air, and is driven by 

 every breath of wind quite as readily. If you catch and exa- 

 mine it, you will find it to be just like the plant-louse which 

 infests our rose trees, &c. : but, unlike all other plant-lice, it is 

 clothed and muffled up with cotton wool, in such quantities, 

 that you would at first have no more idea that the lump con- 

 tained an insect, than that the mass of clothes on a stage-coach 

 box, in winter, contained a man. Some folks wonder what can 

 be the use of so much clothing ; I am not much of a theorist, 

 but I should guess that the vermin came from the torrid zone, 

 and Nature kindly furnishes this, garment to protect them from 

 the cold of our climate. 



" These blights wander wherever it pleases the wind to carry 

 them ; and, if bad luck should drive one of them against the 

 branch of an apple tree, there it will stick, creep into a crack 

 in the bark, bring forth its young, and found a colony : the 

 white cotton soon appears in large bunches; branch after 

 branch becomes infected; the tree grows cankery, pines, and 

 dies. How this is effected no one knows, though the cause 

 and effect are too evident to escape the notice of the com- 

 monest clown. In large orchards it is vain to hope for a 

 cure, but not so in gardens. Directly you see the least morsel 

 of cotton, make up your mind to a little trouble, and you will 

 get rid of it. In the first place, get a plasterer's whitewashing- 

 brush, then get a large pot of double size, make your man 

 heat it till it is quite liquid, then go with him into the garden 

 and see that he paints over every patch of white, though not 

 bigger than a sixpence ; the next morning have the size-pot 

 heated again, and have another hunt ; and keep on doing so 

 every morning for a fortnight. Your man will tell you it's 

 no use ; tell him that's your business, not his : your neigh- 

 bours will laugh at you for your pains ; do it before they are 

 up. I have tried it, and know it to be effectual. Spirit of 

 tar has been used with partial effect, so also has resin ; white- 

 washing has been often tried, and, as it contains some size, is 

 not entirely useless, and some horticulturists think it orna- 

 mental : I do not." 



We now present from correspondents the following re- 

 marks on 



The American Bug, or Cotton Insect [A^phis lanigera), which 

 is of great consequence when speaking of the diseases of apple 

 trees. It appears to be spreading continually into new dis- 

 tricts, though its method of travelling is uncertain. I have 

 known it make its appearance in gardens far removed from 



