165 



contracted by long exposure to drought, are unable to 

 give passage to the consequent sudden great accession 

 of sap. For such an event there is no remedj^, but 

 the preventive is obviously that of mulching and 

 watering, in order to keep the trees in a free-growing 

 state during the dry weather, so that when rain does 

 come a full supply of moisture will be nothing more 

 than what the trees have been accustomed to, {Ibid, 

 1843, 361.) 



Gumming, however, also is the mere efflux of the 

 sap from a wound, the best remedy for which is to 

 cut the injured parts out cleanly with a very sharp 

 knife, and excluding the entrance of wet by plaster- 

 ing it over with white-lead, or with a mixture of 

 melted wax and resin. Such wounds frequently arise 

 from the decay of abortive buds, both of wood-buds 

 and blossom-buds. This abortiveness, observes Mr. 

 Pearson, of Kinlet, near Bewdley, establishes itself 

 earlier or later in the autumn, or probably from the 

 vicissitudes of a severe winter. The abortive wood- 

 buds are more numerous in those trees which are 

 rather declining in vigour, or in those branches of a 

 young tree which has been robbed of its portion of 

 nourishment by its more robust neighbours, or, which 

 is often the case, branches which have borne too 

 much fruit. It matters little, however, in this case^ 

 how these abortive buds are established ; the fact is , 

 they are established, and there the disease commences 



