Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 July 1875 — Washing Trees. [ARTICLE]

Washing Trees.

Scraping trees, as it is usually done, costs more than all the good it does. In the first place it is generally- done early- in the spring, when there is not much else to do, but, as in trimming; this is the poorest time in the whole year for performing the operation. If only- the loose, dead bark were removed little or no harm would be done, but when the live bark is hacked and gouged it must injure the tree more or less. Aside from the looks we can see no particular object in scraping or washing trees, except for the purpose of destroying insects or their eggs. The scale or appletree bark louse can he destroyed by scraping and washing, if the work is done at the time the young are moving about, say about the first of June. The coddlingmoths may- be destroyed by scraping wherever the insects are secreted under the loose bark, but the number usually destroyed in that way cannot befvery large. Me would never use lime for washing either fruit or forest trees. The unnatural color given the trunks would of itself be a sufficient objection, even if the lime did no injury to the hark, which we believe it does. Nur would we dare to use potash water, except it were very- weak. Many trees have been killed outright by using lye too strong. Simple soap-suds, or suds made from whale-oil soap, would be our choice for washing trees for the purpose of destroying insects. Whale-oil is very offensive to most insects and death to manv. It will also destroy moss on the trunk and limbs, which is not of much account, as it seldom collects, except on neglected trees. If the soil in an orchard is kept loose, lighGand reasonably rich, there will be little need of any kind of wash for keeping the trees looking smooth and healthy. Trees are smooth in the nursery, partly because the soil is a great deal richer than in the orchard, although young trees have

always brightef-lookmg bark than when they become large and old. Manure and ashes spread on the surface and worked in will do more to keep trees looking healthy than any amount of scraping and washing. — N. E. Farmer.