ORCHARDS AND FRUIT CULTURE. 59 



and plant successfully with trees, this culture cannot be adopted; 

 but upon any land that is capable of cultivation, there is no other 

 method of preparing it so cheaply or easity as to put it through a 

 course of cropping of this kind. We are oftentimes advised to 

 dig the holes six feet across and two feet or more in depth. Well, 

 if the soil does not, from its deep drainage and thorough culture, 

 admit of such holes — if they are but basins in a hard, cold, ten- 

 acious subsoil, such excavations are worse than useless. They 

 may for a time favor the growth of the young trees if they are 

 filled up with rich compost, but in planting an orchard, we should 

 look in the main not for the immediate starting and growth of the 

 tree for a year or two, but look forward to its permanency through 

 many coming years. 



In planting au orchard, as the work is to be done but once, it 

 should be well done. In preparing the holes for the trees, the 

 size and the shape of the hole are important. The size, in well 

 prepared soil, should be large enough to accommodate the full 

 spread of the roots of the tree that it is designed to plant The 

 shape of the hole is also important ; it should be highest in the 

 middle, gently sloping towards the exterior. Then your tree 

 naturally and most favorably adapts its roots to this position. If 

 the hole has been dug by a common laborer, he will doubtless 

 scrape it clean, and give you a plain flat surface upon which to 

 plant your trees. That is not what you want ; you want a gentle 

 elevation adapted to the form of the roots of the tree, to facilitate 

 planting iu the most perfect manner. Prepare the roots of your 

 tree by cutting off every wounded part with a sharp kuife, in a 

 slanting cut, and prepare the top by the removal of at least half of 

 the last year's growth. It seems wicked to a farmer to cut away 

 fine strong shoots — to lacerate his tree in this way ; but at the end 

 of two years, if not at the end of one, he will have a larger tree, 

 and one of better form and proportions, than if he planted it with 

 its full sized branches. 



With regard to the age of the tree, I am in favor of planting 

 young trees, two or three years from the bed in the nursery, rather 

 than large trees that have grown up so that the cattle will not 

 break them down. Farmers too often seek for large trees that 

 have been grown closely in a nursery and have great tops, but the 

 roots of such are small — all out of proportion to the size of the 

 top, if so grown. In selecting trees, if you can select in the 

 nursery, secure those not only with well balanced tops, but with 



