1 30 ORCHARD TREES I AMERICAN BLIGHT ; RED SPIDER ; FUNGUS GROWTHS ; MILDEW. 
ready to break off with the first wind, if not before removed. The Canker shews itself quickly, and 
if the cause is sought for it will often admit of a remedy. The one most usually effective is a good 
supply of nourishment to the trees affected, together with removal of the parts injured. 
American Blight (Aphis lanigera). —'The common Apple-tree aphis in Spring is often 
very destructive to the apple blossom when the weather is unfavourable, but its ranges are too 
widely spread to admit of any effective artificial remedy. This aphis attacks the young foliage and 
clusters of blossom ; but the American Blight attacks the woody parts of the tree, and is still more 
fatal. It is the most important of all Insect Blights, and is known only too well. It attaches 
itself to any part of a tree on which the cuticle is broken. The insect is viviparous like most other 
aphides. It lives on the sap of the tree and by its irritating presence it causes excrescences 
of growth and eventually the death of the branches beyond. It is the habit of this aphis to retire 
into the ground during the winter, and cluster in the crevices of any roots it may find suitable. 
The pest is difficult to get at, but the remedy consists in applying a weak mixture of petroleum 
with soft soap, say an ounce of petroleum, and half a pound of soft soap boiled gradually in a gallon 
of water, apply with a brush or syringe wherever the woolly insect shews itself. This remedy 
has the additional advantage of attacking its winter quarters at the foot of the tree, as it is washed 
there by the rain. The petroleum emulsion is very troublesome to keep well mixed, and when the 
blight is not very extensive a strong solution of soft soap, or of agricultural salt, is much more easy 
of application, and often very effective in destroying the insects. 
Red Spider (Gamasus telarius) is occasionally very destructive to the leaves of Apple and 
Pear trees. It is believed to be due to the condition of the soil in which the tree grows. It may 
be too light or too poor for it; and this belief points out the direction in which the remedy must 
be sought. Many other Insects attack Apple and Pear trees, such as Episema cceruliocephala; 
Cheimatobia Brumata ; Porthesia aurijliia ; Lozotcenia rosana ; Tortrix heparana ; Tortrix ribeana ; 
Tinea corticella; Curculio vastator; Semasia Wceberana; with several other species of Aphis , 
A cams, and Coccus. The visits of these enemies however, are for the most part local, and their 
presence can only be met by the partial remedy of smoking to windward, when plenty of damp 
straw or mouldy hay at hand, gives the opportunity of doing so. 
Fungus Growths, are always unwelcome guests in an Orchard. A botanist may admire a 
fine Polyporus hispida or other Poly poms, or rejoice in a magnificent cluster of Agaricus Pholiota 
squarrosus, with its leopard-like spots and colour, growing from the bole or at the foot of an apple 
tree, as it so often does; but these with all their tribe do but indicate decay within. They must 
of course be cut away at once, but the disease on which they have fed will exist there still. There 
are yet some microscopical funguses, which are so frequent and injurious as to require special notice. 
Mildew. —Blight, or Mildew (a microscopic Oidium) generally growing on the young leaves 
and shoots of the tree. It may appear at any time from Spring to Autumn. It causes first 
a white mealy appearance of the young shoots and leaves, which then curl up—grow black and 
