110 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



plants and trees, grown to that end; but — what is of eqnal, if 

 not greater importance — to disseminate, by publications and 

 by lectures before lyceums and agricultural clubs, a knowledge 

 of tlie correct principles of fruit culture — a subject concerning 

 which, we can only drop a few hints, in conclusion. 



In the first place, it must be borne in mind that, as in all 

 culture, so most especially in fruit culture, is deep tillage the 

 sine qua 7ion ; that trenching, subsoiling, and double spading 

 are absolutely essential to enable the roots to run down into a 

 mellow, rich soil, and thus produce an abundance of fair, large, 

 and luscious fruitage. A neighbor of ours feared that he 

 should lose a favorite pear tree, because one of his workmen 

 dug a great trench by its side, in which to bury his cabbages 

 for the winter. Li place of receiving any injury, however, the 

 tree was stimulated to a new growth, and a most prolific pro- 

 duction of fruit of uncommon size and flavor, and the next 

 year, of course, saw our friend trenching for pears himself. 

 In setting out an apple orchard, or a few pear trees, there are 

 many who will but just hoe a hole in the ground large enough 

 to bury a cat in, pop the roots into it, and, as the trees dry up 

 and die, have the impudence to say, " ! we never had any luck 

 with trees." We always give thanks when any of our friends, who 

 have the folly and the cruelty to deal thus with their trees, lose 

 them, for they ought to die, and it is only a just retribution. 



Secondly. The proper enriching of the soil, thus deeply 

 tilled, is of hard.y less importance. A tree can no more grow 

 without its appropriate food than a man can ; and it is the 

 salts of earths and manures, dissolved in water, that feed the 

 roots of trees. There arc those who plant out their trees in 

 impoverished soil, or mere sand or gravel, without giving them 

 a jot of other nourishment, as though they could live and grow 

 without any rich, good soil, any more than oats or wheat can. 

 No man of common sense, one would think, could expect to 

 grow good, fine, juicy apples out of mere gravel- stones. There 

 are others, who set out orchards in a green sward, and this, we 

 think, is the most common of all blunders in orcharding. They 

 thus allow the sod to grow tight up about their very stems, — 

 they never come to have trunks, — and then complain "that 

 the soil in their part of the country is n't at all suited to fruit 



