40 
It is advisable that the new stocks should be worked with buds 
taken from sound healthy -trees. Trees of one year’s growth from 
the bud could be purchased in England at £5 per hundred, so 
that afew hundreds might easily be imported with a quantity of 
stocks. The dying trees might be cleared away at once, and a new 
start made on a satisfactory basis. 
Trees worked on the mussel would be more hardy, better able 
to résist adverse influences, while their productive power would be 
increased rather than diminished. They would not be exempt from 
the occasional attacks of curl and other fungi, nor from the numerous 
insect-pests that infect the peach, and they would still be subject to 
sudden changes of temperature during the flowering season ; but I do 
not hesitate to express my belief, whatever may yet be discovered with 
regard to the decay of the peach, that the adoption of the mussel- 
stock would once more allow of its profitable cultivation. Whatever- 
new facts may be brought to light by a careful examination of the 
phenomena to be observed in the spring, the adoption of a new stock 
lies at the base of all remedial measures. 
In an Auckland nursery I observed two healthy trees—the only 
trees absolutely healthy there; all the young stock, even the seedlings 
still in the seed-beds, being badly affected. The two healthy speci- 
mens were worked on mussel-stocks. 
Three varieties of peach are stated by some to be “ blight-proof”’ : 
the Comet, Solway, and Early Rivers. This statement, however, must 
be received with some qualification, as I have seen the first and second 
ina dying state, and feel very doubtful about the third. Had the 
assertion been confirmed it might have been worth while to have 
double-budded the mussel, using one of these varieties for the first 
working. 
Affected trees have been headed down and successfully worked 
with certain varieties of plums when the decay has not been too far 
advanced; time is required to prove the permanence of the scion. 
Should present expectations be realised we shall have one of the most 
striking instances of the influence of the scion upon the stock that has 
yet been brought forward. I am assured, however, that some varieties 
of plums do not succeed under such conditions. 
._ One instance in which the process of exhaustion appeared to be 
retarded by remedial measures came under my notice at the Bay of 
Islands. Mr. Goodhue, nurseryman, of Taumarere, washes or syringes 
all his fruit-trees during the winter season with a mixture of lime, 
sulphur, and carbolic acid in the following proportions: 2 gallons 
unslaked lime, 1]b. sulphur, 3 lb. Calvert’s carbolic acid powder. 
Sufficient water is put upon the lime to slake it; the sulphur and 
carbolic acid are added and thorough] incorporated. 1t can either 
be used dry as a fine powder to dust affectad trees, or by the addition 
of water can be made into a wash of any required consistency, Mr. 
Goodhue’s fruit-trees were remarkably free from insect pests; in 
every case the bark was bright and clean, and the trees generally were 
ma vigorous state of growth. All his peaches, however, showed 
