CHERRY. 147 



tree, nor conducive to the quality of the fruit. A 

 top dressing of soot, frequently applied, is particularly 

 serviceable to cherry trees, as well to the roots, 

 as for keeping the tree free from insects ; the effluvia 

 ever rising from the ground, acting offensively to the 

 insects, whether they crawl on the ground or fly in 

 the air. The aphis or green fly (though it is often 

 black when feeding on the cherry) is a sad pest. 

 They lodge andiiveonthe points of the young shoots, 

 distorting the leaves and stopping the growth. Their 

 excrement is what is called honey-dew ; which is 

 copiously discharged over the leaves, and from its 

 thick clamminess, closes the pores, and checks the 

 perspiring functions of those organs. Fumigating 

 the trees with tobacco smoke, syringing them with 

 tobacco water, or dusting them when wet, with 

 Scotch snuff thrown on by a powder puff, are the 

 only means of killing or driving the fly from the 

 trees. It is best to apply some one of these reme- 

 dies as preventives, for none such can be adminis- 

 tered after the fruit begin to ripen. Fumigating trees 

 in the open air, either on walls, espaliers, or 

 standards, is done by means of a fumigating cloth 

 made of thin canvass, and of sufficient size to cover 

 the tree, while the smoke is puffed under by the 

 fumigating bellows. 



Whole quarters of cherry stocks are sometimes 

 totally lost by the attack of insects. Fine slacked 

 lime, mixed with one-third soot, strewed over the 

 trees in a dewy morning, will be found beneficial : 

 or by adding water to this mixture, in a shallow 



