REMEDY FOR THE PEACH AND APPLE BLIGHT.

Waikato Times, Volume I, Issue 60, 17 September 1872, Page 2

REMEDY FOR THE PEACH AND APPLE BLIGHT.

Tiie peach blight has for some years been very destructive. Its eradication is not easily effected, or not to be at all effected, except at considerable exp?nse. The insects are notdiflicult to destroy, if youcan reach them ; but their numbers necessitate art inmense amount of labour and material. If convenient you might at once paint the trees with a mixture of Gilhurst compound, black soap, or tobacco liquor, adding a little clay, and lime or soot. By this means you may weaken them and reduce their numbers, it is impossible to eradicate them entirely. r Jhen in spring, when they appear on the young shoots, you must have at them again. If yuu have force of water, the best of all ways is to wash them off with water from a hose-pipe or from a garden engine ; otherwise you must use a weaker solut'on. of the G-ilhurst, saft-soap, or tobacco liquor. The most efficient manner to apply which is to din the young shoots into it; when that is not convenient it must be laid on with a syringe or an engine. With regard to the apple or cotton blight, we have heard of many modes of cure, such as bluestone, ire solution of an ounce to fifty gallons of water ; night soil, lime, salt, and sulphur, applied to the roots; but we have not much faith in any of them, for we know that failure? have occurred with each and all. We have before us a letter detailing a method of using quicksilver, said to be effectual, by boring a hole downwards into the bole of the tree," and pouring, in a quillful. We cannot credit this either, especially as the quicksilver has been found years after " not apparently diminished in quantity." You may, if expense is not an object, manipulate your trees in the same manner as recommended for the peach; or which is perhaps better, pour boiling water into your engine to wash the trees with. , It will be cool enough before it reaches them, not to be injurious, but sufficiently hot to destroy all insects it may come in contact with. This pest has become such a nuisance that in order that apple-growing may be profitable, a great reform must take place in the cultivation of the trees. In the first place, they should be grafted on blight-proof stock, which thanks to persevering enterprise, can now be obtained in the Majetin and Nothern Spy apples, both themselves first-rate varieties, and which trials of many years have shown to be entirely blightproof and, being exceedingly free varieties, make most excellent stocks, equal, if not better, than many seedlings, producing shoots of two or three yards in length in a year. Of course you must not expect that the top of the trees will be kept free, unless you choose sorts which are not liable to the attack of blight, of which several are now known, and others that are only partially liable. But the greatest reform to be effected is in the pruning, so that the limbs may be clean, free from knobs and spurs, and the ccntre open, instead of being filled, with useless wood. All shoots that are not required should be pinched off as soon as they appear, so as to reduce the pasture for the aphides, to strengthen those i:l "'t remain, and to allow the passage of the winds.—Melbourne Weekly Times,