VI.] 



DISEASES OF FRUIT-TREES. 



215 



deeply, and two or three times, from the beginning of winter to 

 the middle of April, will give it an uneasy life at least, and the 

 possihility of stopping its ravages is worth the attempt. 



291. 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 in 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 cut 

 off the shoots and leaves that have it and to suffer others to come 

 out. This blight sometimes comes upon apple-trees. 



292. LICE. — Prodigious quantities of these come upon the 

 points of the shoots of peaches, nectarines, and cherries, which 

 cause them to curl up and become black ; and, after this, gene- 

 rally, 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. 



293. GUM. — All stone fruit ; cherries, plums, peaches, nec- 

 tarines, and apricots, are liable to the gum, which sometimes pro- 

 ceeds from injudicious pruning, and sometimes from the tree 

 having but a poor root. It very frequently comes after the cutting 

 out of a luxuriant branch, especially if that branch be cut off 

 near to the trunk and in the spring or summer, which it never 

 ought to be if it can be avoided. A tree will sometimes gum, 

 and cease to gum afterwards ; and, though it gum, it will bear. 

 If it continue to gum, and the gum appear in several parts of it 

 at the same time, and attack the tree severely, it will soon cease 

 to produce wood fit for bearing, and the sooner it is cut down 

 and thrown away the better. 



294. PEACH-BUG. — This is a thing between louse and bug : 

 it is of a green colour, and clings along upon the wood of the 

 peach-trees, and of nectarines, of course. These are destroyed 

 very quickly by fumigating the trees with strong tobacco-smoke, 

 or washing them with water in which tobacco has been steeped. 

 It is rather difficult to fumigate against a wall ; but, at any rate, 

 the wood can be well-washed with tobacco-water. These insects, 

 however, must bp destroyed by one means or another ; or they 

 will spoil the crop for the year, and spoil the tree too. 



295. MAGGOT. — There is a maggot which comes in apple- 

 trees and pear-trees, but particularly the former, just before the 



