160 



A DISCOURSE 



BOOK II. unbarked them, as I observed in some go'odly Ashes at Cassiobury, (near 

 "^'"^'^'^^ the garden of that late noble Lord, and lover of planting, the Earl of 

 Essex,) and are therefore to be destroyed by stopping up their entrances 

 with tar and goose-dung, or by conveying the fumes of brimstone into 

 their cells. Cantliarides attack the Ash above all other botts of the 

 beetle kind. Chafers, &c. are to be shaken down and crushed ; and 

 when they come in armies, (as sometimes in extraordinary droughts,) 

 they are to be driven away or destroyed with smoke, which also kills 

 gnats and flies of all sorts. Note, That the rose-bug never, or very 

 seldom, attacks any other tree whilst that sweet bush is in flower. 

 Whole fields have been freed from worms by the reek and smoke of 

 ox-dung wrapt in mungy straw, well soaked with strong lye. 



Earwigs and snails do seldom infest forest-trees, but those which are 

 fruit-bearers, and are destroyed by setting boards or tiles against the 

 walls, or the placing of neat-hoofs, or any hollow thing upon small 

 stakes ; also by enticing them into sweet waters, and by picking the 

 snails off betimes in the morning, and rainy evenings. 1 advise you to 

 visit your Cypress-trees on the first rains in April ; you shall sometimes 

 find them covered with young snails no bigger than small peas. Lastly, 

 branches, buds, and leaves, suffer extremely from blasts, caterpillars, 

 locusts, rooks, &c. Note, That you should visit the boards, tiles, and 

 hoofs, which you set for the retreat of those insects, in the heat of the 

 day, to shake them out, and kill them. 



.The blasted parts of trees, and gum, should be cut away to the quick ; 

 and to prevent it, smoke them in suspicious weather, by biuning moist 

 straw with the wind, or rather the dry and superfluous cuttings of 

 aromatic plants, such as Rosemary, Lavender, Juniper, Bay, &c. I use 

 to whip and chastise my Cypresses with a wand, after their winter 

 burnings, till all the mortified and scorched parts fly off in dust, as long 

 almost as any will fall, and observe that they recover and spring the 

 better. Mice, moles, and pismires, cause the jaundice in trees, known 

 by the discolour of the leaves and buds. 



The moles do much hurt, by making hollow passages, which grow 

 musty ; but they may be taken in traps, and killed, as every woodman 



