CHAP. 42. (27.)—-INCISIONS MADE IN TREES.

The proper remedies for charcoal-blight and mildew[1] will be pointed out in the succeeding Book.[2] In the meantime, however, we may here observe that among the remedies may be placed that by scarification.[3] When the bark becomes meagre and impoverished by disease, it is apt to shrink, and so compress the vital parts of the tree to an excessive degree: upon which, by means of a sharp pruning knife held with both hands, incisions are made perpendicularly down the tree, and a sort of looseness, as it were, imparted to the skin. It is a proof that the method has been adopted with success, when the fissures so made remain open and become filled with wood of the trunk growing between the lips.

1. "Uredo rubigo" and "uredo caries."

2. Cc. 45 and 70.

3. Still practised upon the cherry-tree.