irs TREATISE ON THE CULTURE ANU 



which, after a short, but active life, terminate their existence 

 without having tasted food, being provided with no sort of or-^ 

 gans for that purpose. 



Peach, nectarine, and pear-trees, are very much infested 

 with these insects : They frequently cut through the bark, and 

 the trees then appear as if they had been scratched by cats. 

 I have seen some trees with this appearance all over them^. 



When these insects first appear on the bark, they should be 

 scraped off with a wooden knife, and the stem and branches of 

 the tree washed with soap-suds and urine, applied with a stiff 

 painter's brush. This should be done in February, before the 

 buds begin to come out. But if the outer bark is perforated, 

 it must be cut or pared off with a long knife ; and if you find 

 any brown spots in the inner bark, they must be carefully cut 

 out. This disease is one great cause of the canker, and of the 

 death of the tree. [See Plate 9. Fig, 3.] 



When this disease has made its way through both barks, 

 as is often the case, the branches on each side of the tree may 

 be cut close to the stem, if it has an upright one ; but if the tree 

 be trained fan-fashion, the best way is to head it near to the 

 place where it was grafted. I have headed old pear-trees 

 which were so dead, except a small strip of live bark on one 

 side, that you might rub the bark off them as easily as off a 

 bundle of iaggot-sticks that had been cut upwards of a year ; 

 yet these trees have shot out fresh branches to the length of 

 seventeen feet in two years, and produced fine fruit the second 

 year. Apply the composition immediatly after heading, o» 

 cutting, or paring off the deceased bark.. 



A very destructive species of the coccus tribe has lately 

 done incredible damage to the apple-trees in the nurseries and 

 gardens in the neighbourhood of London* Some Nurserymen 

 have lost several thousand apple-trees in one year. These in- 

 sects attach themselves to the bark by their suckers, and, by 

 feeding on the juices of the tree, rob it of its nourishment. 

 Such trees as are infested with them have a sickly appearance* 

 I am happy, however, in being able to say, that I have nearly 

 extirpated them from his Majesty's gardens at Kensington s 

 But, as our neighbours do not pay the same attention to their 

 trees as we do to ours, the insects frequently emigrate to us j this 

 obliges me to be very attentive to their first appearance ; and 

 as I take the earliest opportunity of destroying them, the trees 

 suffer very little from their depredations. 



* This, if I am not much mistaken, is the very insect that makes sucli 

 Ureadful ravages amongst the peach-trees, in America. 



