112 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



aniTnoiiiacal manures, as guano, horse dung, and urine, are spe- 

 cifics for the peach, and give flavor and spirit to all other fruits. 



Care should be taken to avoid the common fault of setting 

 trees too deep, so that, to live and flourish, they are compelled 

 to form new roots above the old. 



Proper pruning is another important consideration in this 

 connection. All trees should be shaped when they are young, 

 so as to avoid the injury and unsightliness of mutilating large 

 limbs when they are grown. Dwarfs, like hedges, should be 

 pruned pyramidically, so that the lower limbs may not die out, 

 and the sun, air, and rain may have access equally to the under 

 as the upper branches. Peach trees, especially, need to have 

 a large part of the spring growth cut in June, and a second 

 pruning in August ; this double pruning will throw the sap into 

 fruit buds, make the tree stout and strong, and able, even 

 when loaded to resist the winds ; and, in place of a few etiola- 

 ted and drawn out branches, will cause a thick growth, that 

 will carry the fruit buds back near to the trunk; and the short, 

 well ripened wood will withstand the winter frosts better, as 

 well as the summer tempests. In this way, and by keeping a 

 little heap of coal ashes round the butt, to keep out the borers, 

 a crop of fruit will be always sure. Grapes and peaches, to 

 produce fruit instead of leaves and wood, need constant and 

 thorough pruning. 



A mere allusion to the subject of mulching will conclude 

 these hints. Though a matter that has received too little 

 general consideration, yet, years ago, attention was called by 

 the writer and others, in horticultural and agricultural periodi- 

 cals, to the importance of mulching trees, shrubs, plants, &c. 

 In other words, of covering the surface of the soil, around 

 their roots, with light porous substances, as hay, leaves, straw, 

 chips, sliavings, sawdust, and even shells. The vast benefit of 

 this operation will instantly be seen, when we reflect that the 

 food of plants is always liquid ; that their nutriment is sucked 

 up by the m.ouths of the little spongioles at the end of the 

 radicles or little roots, in the form of water that has absorbed 

 the nutritious elements of the soil ; and that when — as is apt 

 to be the case in our periodical New England droughts — the 

 ground becomes parched, the trees not merely become dry, but 



