66 
THE APPLE. 
Dryness originates, or, at least, invites it there, and, fortunately, it can 
be watered out. In bad cases, the affected roots, which are generally 
near the surface, should be uncovered, the blight washed off with soap 
and water, the roots dressed with train oil, the old soil removed and 
burned, new and clean applied, and then the entire root mass soaked 
with strong sewage, and kept more than usually wet until there is an 
end of the blight. ' 
IV.—jScale and Aphis. 
The Mussel, or brown scale, also frequently attacks the apple ; it 
clings to the bark so closely, and is so like it in colour, that in a small 
state it often escapes detection. It injures the tree by feeding on the 
bark, and prevents the latter from performing its proper functions or 
continuing in good health. A common plan of removing the scale is 
to scrub it off with hot soap and water or paint the trees with* lime 
wash, and so smother it in, or suffocate it with a dressing of train 
oil. Benzoline and other mineral oils have also proved effective in 
killing the scale. All young trees should be carefully examined for 
scale, &c., before planting, as it is obvious that few of those remedies 
could be applied to large orchard trees, however effectual they might 
be for the smaller trees of the garden. 
The common aphides occasionally attack the apple in such numoers 
as to prove very injurious. Their chief point of attack is often the 
extremities of the growing shoots, and if this happens late in the 
season, say in the middle of June, the simplest remedy is to cut off the 
whole of the ends on which the aphides cluster, and carry them away 
in baskets to be burned. If the aphides attack earlier in the season the 
garden engine, with either clean or tobacco water, or hot sewage at a 
temperature of 130°, is the best remedy. 
V.—Caterpillars^ Weevils, and Maggots. 
Various caterpillars and grubs also feed upon the leaves, flowers, and 
young fruit of the apples. It would unduly burden these pages with 
entomological matter to describe them all or prescribe remedies for each. 
Most of them are large enough to be seen by the cultivator, and every 
opportunity should be taken to pick them off, either in the moth, 
caterpillar, grub, or chrysalis state. All webs should be picked off apple 
trees as soon as seen. The trees should frequently be shaken, and any 
grubs or caterpillars that fall to the ground should be instantly destroyed. 
Trees that suffer from the apple borer or other insects should also have 
