CHAP. 42. (27.)—INCISIONS MADE IN TREES.
The proper remedies for charcoal-blight and mildew[3235] will be pointed out in the succeeding Book.[3236] In the meantime, however, we may here observe that among the remedies may be placed that by scarification.[3237] 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.