Wash For Fruit-Trees

The following is a wash used by William Saunders, of the government gardens at Washington: Put half a bushel of lime and four pounds of powdered sulphur in a tight barrel, slacking the lime with hot water, the mouth of the barrel being covered with a cloth; this is reduced to the consistency of ordinary whitewash, and, at the time of application, half an ounce of carbolic acid is added to each gallon of liquid. Mr. Saunders says: " I generally apply it in the spring, before the leaves make their appearance, but I am convinced that it would be more effective if applied later; but then it is difficult to do so when the tree is in foliage." Mr. Saunders applies the wash, not only to the stem of the tree, but, to some extent, to the main branches. V. 22. Homestead.

Wash For Plants

The Florist and Pamologist says, that the following is strongly recommended for mildew, scale, red spider, etc., upon greenhouse plants and out-of-door shrubs and trees : Flour of sulphur two ounces, worked to a paste with a little water ; sal soda, two ounces; cut tobacco, half an ounce; quicklime the size of a duck's egg; water, one gallon. Boil together and stir for fifteen minutes, and let cool and settle. In use it is diluted according to the character of the plants, which are to be syringed with water after the application.

Wash For The Peach Worm

R. J. Moses, in the Southern Cultivator, says: "After taking out the worm from the peach tree, make a solution (mixed with a little cow dung or clay) of the Plant Destroyer, which is a chemical result of petroleum, and can be had at 113 Elizabeth St., New York. Wash the trunks of the trees with this, and the fly will cease to deposit the egg by which the worm is produced. A yearly application of this solution will, I think, effectually rid you of the peach worm".

This present month is a suitable time to examine peach-trees, and to destroy the worm - and it is a labor and duty in peach growing essential to success. If any of our readers should use the wash above named, we hope they will report to us of results; but we advise them not to trust to it without looking over their trees next May or June.

Whitewashing Trees

I often see this advised, and some of my neighbors adopt the advice, making their orchards and trees around their house good representations of tombstones in a cemetery. As the object of using whitewash or alkali upon the bodies of trees is to destroy any insect life that may have collected or attached itself thereto, and as weak lye is equally or more effectual than whitewash, and less glaring and offensive to the eye, I see no reason why editors of journals should ever permit the issue of advice to use whitewash without a word of comment. Possibly they may be jealous of their country friends, and thus advise them to destroy Nature's own coat and make the appearance as artificial and absurd as their own town views.

Whitewashing Walls

"Riding along, saw a man whitewashing his board fence on the south side, against which he was training his grapes. Asked him why he did so. Said They all whitewashed their walls for growing fruit in Hengland".

Query: Which attracts the greatest heat, black or white?

Wash For Trees

(J. G., Clark Co., Ohio.)

Soap suds make a very good wash for young fruit trees.

Wash The Trees

Mid-winter is certainly the most leisure time of the fruitgrower, and he should therefore work up his then leisure in the most profitable manner. All fruit-trees are not infested with coccus or bark lice, but all fruit-trees have more or less of foul matters accumulated on and in their bark, and it pays well at this time to go over them with a swab of lye water, sulphur, and lime-wash mixed. The first rain will reduce its strength and at the same time clear it from the tree, taking with it the eggs of insects, moss, etc., and leave the bark clean and pure - open to. the action of natural laws of growth.