360 
it for the latter. This takes place, if I am not mistaken, with 
respect to the fruit of the r-aspberry; some varieties of that 
plant bear spontaneously in autumn, and I think that all might 
<lo the same with proper care and attention. Nature is atten¬ 
tive to the different species, and never ceases to occupy itself 
with contriving the means of their re-production. By destroy¬ 
ing the blossom of a plant, which, like the apple tree, most 
commonly bears every other year, might it not be possible to 
put back its crop very often to the subsequent year ? I conjec¬ 
ture it; I do not dare to warrant it, having not yet made any 
experiments of the kind.* 
Happily the misletoe, which is so common among our neigh¬ 
bours, has not yet shown itself upon our trees;f they are, 
however, attacked with the moss, which does them an infinite 
deal of harm; the cutting, as being weaker, suffers more than 
the seedling. It may be destroyed by throwing, in damp win¬ 
ter weather, wood or sea-weed ashes, or pulverised quick lime, 
over the branches; by washing the trunk with fresh lye, such 
as is used in washing, and after it has been laid on with ashes, 
by cleaning it with a coarse cloth or a handful of straw. In 
this manner the trunk becomes perfectly smooth, and the in¬ 
sects perish which were lodged in the external crevices and 
gnawed the bark, together with the eggs which in the spring 
would have produced some other insects. It will be sufficient 
for the most part, to repeat this operation once every three oy 
four years. 
The lye, being rendered more caustic by being boiled with 
quick lime, in nearly the same proportion as that of ashes, 
when injected with a garden engine into the branches of the 
peach tree, destroys the aphis. This operation, when per¬ 
formed about the end of autumn, annihilates the future gene¬ 
ration of that destructive insect. This may be done on all 
sorts of trees, and, it is probable, that the birds most often at« 
tack the young buds, but with the tiew of feeding on the 
grubs which are lodged in their tender cellulas. 
' * I hope the reader will indulgently receive these conjectures, as they 
have no other object than the advancement of rural economy, even if fu¬ 
ture experiments should demonstrate them to have been erroneous. From 
the increase of value in our orchards within these few years, they may now 
be looked upon as the chief and most important part of our larded property. 
Besides the advantages we derive from the cider, the traffic in apples and 
pears already gives room to expect the most favourable results; may then 
such powerful and interested motives determine our farmers to concentrate 
their industry on these solid bases, rather than buoy up themselves with 
the hopes of speculations foreign to their situation in life, and at all times 
doubtful, but which, at the end of the war with the continent, would in¬ 
fallibly be overturned in the course of a few weeks! 
f After the publication of this work, the author discovered one solitary 
instance of the misletoe in the island, but this can hardly invalidate the as¬ 
sertion in the text. 
CHAPTER 
