DISEASES AKD INSECTS. 



45 



wine-glass of spirit of turpentine. Another recipe is 

 to boil half a pound of tobacco for an hour in a covered 

 saucepan, mix the decoction with the soap, &c., and add 

 water enough to make two gallons of the whole. 



Another mixture for the stems may be made by beat- 

 ing together half a pound of sulphur, a quarter of a 

 pound of soft soap, and two ounces of pepper, stir it 

 into two gallons of water, let it boil for twenty minutes, 

 thicken it with lime until it is thick enough to lay on in 

 a coat, like paint with a brush, and stir in soot enough 

 to make it a pale slate- colour, that it may be less of an 

 eyesore upon the trees than glaring white would be. 



A good wash may be made of clay, sulphur, and water, 

 which will very likely clog less than these. 



Except in extreme cases, it is better to avoid washes 

 of the thick consistence of paint, as they cannot but be 

 injurious by excluding air and impeding respiration. 



Exudation of gum sometimes injures trees which are 

 subject to it, especially the cherry. Avoid planting in 

 over-rich soil and other circumstances likely to create 

 too luxuriant a growth, and take care that the tree does 

 not get wounded or rubbed in the bark ; both causes 

 occasion escape of gum. Bleeding, or the loss of sap by 

 a w^ound, is only the same thiug in another kind of tree. 

 Vines will bleed enough to weaken or injure them greatly 

 if they are injudiciously cut at a wrong season. 



When trees die, apparently without rhyme or reason, 

 it is generally because they have sent their roots down 

 to an ungenial subsoil. Preventive measures are to shift 

 the tree, if it be not too old, to make a trench round it 

 and cut the roots which are running down too deep, and 

 by encouraging the roots to keep near the surface of the 

 ground by a little gentle forking and mulching. 



The insects which injure fruit trees and destroy the 

 fruit, are almost too numerous to name — their name is 

 legion. Those which attack the trunk of the tree are 

 perhaps the most destructive and the most powerful. 



The stag-beetle clings to the tiunks of trees and lays 

 its eggs, and the larva works its way into the wood and 

 commits depredations in that form for three years. 



