THE ORCHARD. 47 
The medicated tar, is composed of half an ounce of corrosive sub- 
limate, reduced to a fine powder, and then put into a three pint earth- 
en pipkin, with about ualf a gill of gin, or other spirit, stirred well 
together, and the sublimate ihus dissolved. The pipkin must then 
be filled by degrees with common tar, and constantly stirred till the 
mixture is intimately blended. This quantity will be sufficient for 
two hundred trees. Being of a very poisonous nature, it should not 
be suffered to lie carelessly about the house. The sublimate dis- 
solves better, when united with the same quantity of the spirit of 
hartshorn, or of sal ammoniac. This mixture being apt to run, 
consistency may be given it, by mixing it with either pounded chalk, 
or whiting. 
The above composition will be found eminently useful, as no worm 
of any kind, can live near its influence, and no evil whatever will 
arise to the trees from its poisonous quality; it yields to the growth 
of the bark, and affords a complete protection to the parts against 
the influence of the weather. 
A solution of corrosive sublimate, made as directed under the 
head Orchard next month, will be found the most effectual wash 
that can be applied to peach and other trees, for the destruction of 
the worm which so generally annoys them. 
Those who wish to apply Forsythe^s, or Barnes's compositions, 
will find instructions, both for making and applying them, under 
the head Orchard in March. ' 
When pruning is judiciously done, fruit trees will come into 
bearing sooner, produce more abundantly, and continue in vigour 
for nearly double their common age. No branch of your orchard 
trees should ever be shortened, unless for the figure of the tree or 
the reasons before mentioned, and then, it should be taken off close, 
as before observed, to where it was produced, or to a leading shoot. 
The more the range of branches shoot circularly, a little inclining 
upwards, the more equally will the sap be distributed, and the bet- 
ter will the tree bear. The ranges of branches should not be too 
near each other, that the fruit and leaves should all have their full 
share of sun; and where it suits, the middle of the tree should be so 
free from wood, that no branch crosses another, but all the extre- 
mities point upwards. 
If any of your particularly valuable fruit trees, are partly decayed, 
or in a bad state of health, and that you wish to attempt their re- 
storation, by judicious pruning, and the application of good com- 
position; you must defer it till March, or when the sap begins to 
ascend in spring, which will be manifest by the swelling of their 
buds; then prune them, and apply the composition as directed in 
March. 
I am not an advocate for much doctoring with old decayed or sick- 
ly trees, but the reverse; therefore recommend as the most prefer- 
able way, to replace such, with young healthy trees, so soon as they 
show strong symptoms of decay. Whenever you meet with a tree, 
the fruit of which you esteem, propagate it immediately whilst in 
health, by budding or grafting, &c. and if it should afterwards get 
