AMERICAN BLIGHT, AND ITS SUCCESSFUL TREATMENT. 145 



remedies have been tried, but all of little or no use, the remedy 

 in most cases being as destructive as the pest itself. 



The following methods, carried out accurately, will be found 

 to thoroughly meet the evil without the least injury to the tree ; 

 in fact they impart an extra stimulus to it, and the bark assumes 

 the bright, smooth, robust appearance alone common to health. 

 All preparations containing spirit are to be condemned as posi- 

 tively injurious ; turpentine, naphtha, and benzoline being 

 positively the worst. Paraffin oil, latterly so frequently resorted 

 to as a remedy for nearly all evils, is most generally used to the 

 great injury of the already wounded tree, and after all to little or 

 no permanent good. Spirit unites with the natural resins, causing 

 congestion of the already affected parts — hence further trouble 

 and mischief — besides which spirit rapidly evaporates, leaving the 

 ova frequently uninjured. The material the writer has found — 

 a really reliable one — is that known as creolin ; a commoner 

 preparation, equally good, being commercially known as Jeyes' 

 concentrated fluid. It is a by-product from coal in the manu- 

 facture of gas, looking and smelling very like ordinary tar, but, 

 unlike it, it is readily miscible with water, therefore very easily 

 controlled and applied, and, except in its actually pure state, is 

 perfectly harmless to all but very young wood. Used in the 

 manner described below the best results have been attained. 

 At the end of February and during March wash every part of 

 the bark possible with a solution composed of half a pint of the 

 concentrated fluid to a gallon of water, using a moderately hard 

 brush, and working into all the interstices, repeating the opera- 

 tion two or three times at intervals of a week or ten days, and 

 well soaking the surrounding earth with a solution of half that 

 strength. 



As a matter of course, the parts very much injured are 

 better cut away and the wounds painted over with the solu- 

 tion suggested. In cases where the blight has been of long 

 standing it will require longer treatment, but care must be 

 exercised, and the surrounding soil must be treated as well 

 as the tree. Where the affected part is manifested by the pre- 

 sence of the cottony secretion, carefully paint it, without dis- 

 turbing more than necessary, with the following : 2 ounces 

 creolin fluid ; 20 grains corrosive sublimate (perchloride of 

 mercury) ; 1 pint water. Mix, and shake well together, allowing 



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