Feb.] the ORCHARD. I43 
the least tending downward. Should there be any mouldy appear- 
ance or rottenness amongj the roots, cut such out effectually, and 
wash the others clean with a weak lye or soap suds. If the ground 
be wet place a few flat stones under the places where you cut off the 
decending roots, to prevent the young roots which may be produced 
again from about the cuts taking a perpendicular direction, and to 
give them a lateral inclination. 
As the roots invariably collect the sap from the extreme points, 
this cutting compels the horizontal ones to work and exert them- 
selves, and if there be any energy left, they will soon throw out 
fresh fibres, and thus collect a more congenial sap for the support 
of the tree and fruit. At the same time, in the filling in of the 
earth, add a quantity of good rotten manure, and cover the ground 
thinly over with the same, as far as the roots may be supposed to 
extend; wash the stem and branches with soap-suds, or if any 
worms are perceivable, with the mercurial or corrosive solution, 
and water the ground round the tree at intervals in very dry wea- 
ther, till you perceive it pushing vigorously. 
There is not a more powerful agent for producing the canker and 
other disorders, than these decending roots. Canker indeed may- 
arise from an improper soil, a vitiated sap, animalcules, and the 
want of free circulation of the fluids: the last is often caused by in- 
judiciously shortening too many of the leading branches. The me- 
dication before recommended, will stop the progress of the evil on 
the parts to which it is applied; but the canker may again break out 
on the other parts of the same tree, and that arises very frequently 
from the roots striking into a cold and unfriendly soil. 
The fluids being once vitiated by any subterraneous cause, canker 
is not the only evil; insects are invited thereby to deposit their eggs 
in the bark, which in due time become crawling maggots; these 
feed on the sap of the trees, devouring the inner bark and rind as 
they proceed, until the period of their chrysalis; which having un- 
dergone, they take wing and fly off, and in their progress seldom 
fail to lay the foundation of similar mischief. 
From this may be inferred the necessity of making a judicious 
choice of proper ground for your fruit trees, and paying due atten- 
tion to their cultivation and health; for it is quite as presumable, if 
not more so, that the vitiated juices of the trees invite the worms, 
than that they are the original cause which produces it. 
When any of your fruit trees are growing extremely luxuriant, 
and continue to produce no fruit, though having arrived at a pro- 
per age for that purpose; they may be forced into a bearing state, 
by opening the ground around them, and cutiing through a few of 
their largest roots, but especially the descending ones; the depriva- 
tion which will arise from this, of their extraordinary resources, 
which was the cause of their running into such a luxuriancy of 
wood, will soon bring them into a bearing state; but be careful 
that you smooth with a chissel or other sharp instrument, the 
roots at the amputations, and not have them in a mangled state, 
which might bring on diseases that probably would destroy the 
trees. 
