136 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE. 



cient returns, and they have literally starved, not being able to 

 obtain from it the food which they required, and consequently they 

 languished and at length perished. This, it is evident, may be 

 obviated by proper manuring, and for this purpose nothing is bet- 

 ter than a compost of leaf mosld with wood ashes and lime. If 

 leaf mould cannot be had, muck from a hard wood growth, well 

 decomposed by exposure to a winter's frost, and mixed with quick- 

 lime slaked with water in which common salt has been dissolved 

 until it is saturated, is a good substitute. Muck from a wet swamp, 

 composed largely of decayed mosses and leaves of evergreens, pos- 

 sesses considerably less value, but still is worth using, if no better 

 can be had. It needs, however, a longer exposure, and larger 

 additions of mineral matter. Stable manure may be mixed with 

 the above compost to advantage, but, as a general rule, farm-yard 

 manure is more needed for other crops than for fruit trees, and if 

 used freely, it is liable to induce a late and unripened growth of 

 wood. This is to be carefully avoided, for unless the shoots be- 

 come fully maturOj the tree cannot be relied upon, either for hardi- 

 hood sufficient for our severe wintei's, nor for productiveness. 

 These remarks concerning stable manure, it should be added, apply 

 chiefly to nursery trees and to young orchards. When trees are 

 in full bearing, and especially if the orchard is in grass, farm-yard 

 manure may be applied to advantage. 



Again, the earlier planted trees were generally vjell sheltered by 

 the native forest growth. The value of shelter, in such a climate 

 as ours, has never been sufficiently appreciated. In many localities 

 this single circumstance alone may cause the difference between a 

 stunted growth when exposed to all the blasts of winter and the 

 blighting winds and gales of summer, and a vigorous healthful 

 growth when properly secured against them. The success which 

 has attended the planting of rows of evergreens, is really surprising 

 to those who have not observed the results, or have not sufficiently 

 reflected upon the subject; and warrants the belief that no more 

 judicious investment can be made for young orchards in exposed 

 situations, than the planting of evergreen screens, simultaneously 

 with, or better still, previous to, the planting out of fruit trees. 

 In some countries this subject is so well understood, that no suc- 

 cess would be looked for with many varieties without such protec- 

 tion ; and with it, there is no doubt that some kinds might be 

 successfully grown with us, which now prove tender and unreliable 

 without it. 



