V,.] 



DISEASES OF FEUlT-ThEES 



213 



tree be to be trausplantedj you ought to take it up in the fall 

 after the .spring of sowing it ; for it has a long tap-root, and will 

 remove with great difficulty if you suffer it to remain for two or 

 three years. When yuu rake the young plant up, cut off the tap- 

 root to within six inches of the part which met the top of the 

 ground : transplant it into a nursery ; let it stand there for three 

 vears, and then it will remove with a good bushy root. Keep the 

 side-shoots pruned off" in the manner before directed ; and the 

 head of the tree will form itself. It is said that walnut-trees 

 should be threshed or beaten, a saying which has certainly arisen 

 from the want of a good reason for knockins: down the fruit, 

 which, like nuts and filberts, should always hang tiU it drops from 

 the tree. 



DISEASES AXD VERMIX, 



288. I HAVE reserved until now the remarks necessary to be 

 made upon the diseases to which fruit-trees are subject : and also 

 on the insects and other mischievous living things by which they 

 are rajured. I have reserved, too, until now, the observations to 

 be made relative to divers mischievous insects which do injui v to 

 the herbaceous plants of the kitchen-garden. I shall now- speak 

 of the whole under one head, which will be more convenient to 

 the reader than if the remaiks with regard to them had been scat- 

 tered throughout the book. 



289. CANKER, — Apple-trees are greatly afflicted by the 

 canker, which is a rotting of the bark in particular spots ; pro- 

 ducing, in time, the destruction of the branch or limb. If per- 

 ceived when at lirst coming, it may sometimes be cut quite out ; 

 and, if that cannot be done, its ravages may be stayed by paring 

 off all the perished bark till you come to the quick, and cutting 

 the edges of that quick very smooth with a very sharp knife, this 

 bark will grow a little again and have round edges ; the place 

 should be washed once or twice a year with soap and water to keep 

 out the insects, which are always endeavouring to harbour round 

 these w^ounded spots. As to the putting on of plaster of any 

 kind, I have tried it often, and have never found it of any use. 

 But, observe, neither a tree nor a limb is to be abandoned merely 



