Under this title (Engl.) it is observed, that when large branches of trees bearing stone-fruit are taken off, the trees are subject to gum and decay. For this a remedy has been invented by Thomas Skip Dyot Bucknall, Esq., of Conduit-street, which, notwithstanding many objections made to it at first, experience has proved to be successful, and for the discovery of which the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, &c., voted the silver medal to the discoverer. It is as follows:

Cut every branch which should be taken away close to the place of its separation from the trunk; smooth it well with a knife; and then with a painter's brush smear the wound over with what Mr Bucknall calls medicated tar. This medicated tar is composed of one quarter of an ounce of corrosive sublimate, reduced to fine powder by beating with a wooden hammer, and then put into a three-pint earthen pipkin, with about a glass full of gin or other spirit, stirred well together, and the sublimate thus dissolved. The pipkin is then filled by degrees with vegetable or common tar, and constantly stirred, till the mixture be blended together as intimately as possible; and this quantity will at any time be sufficient for two hundred trees. To prevent danger, let the corrosive sublimate be mixed with the tar as quickly as possible after it is purchased; for, being of a very poisonous nature to all animals, it should not be suffered to lie about a house, for fear of mischief to some part of the family.

By the application of this composition, Mr Bucknall can, without the smallest danger, use the pruning hook on all kinds of trees much more freely than we have recommended its use in the article referred to. "I give no attention (says he) to fruit-branches, and wood-branches; but beg, once for all, that no branch shall ever be shortened, unless for the figure of the tree, and then constantly taken off close to the separation, by which means the wound soon heals. The more the range of the branches shoots circularly, a little inclining upwards, the more equally will the sap be distributed, and the better will the tree bear; for, from that circumstance, the sap is more evenly impelled to every part. Do not let the ranges of branches be too near each other; for remember all the fruit and the leaves should have their full share of the sun; and where it suits let the middle of the tree be free from wood, so that no branch shall ever cross another, but all the extreme ends point outwards."