LECTURES AND ESSAYS. 453 



HOW TO PLANT AND GROW AN ORCHARD. 



Select a deep, rich soil. Should there be any places that are inclined to 

 be wet, they must be well under-drained before setting the trees. 



Let the ground be thoroughly prepared, then set the trees about an inch 

 deeper than in the nursery, in well pulverized soil, using leaf mould, if you 

 choose, but no manure. The latter, if used, should be on the surface as a 

 mulch. Before setting, cut off all the roots bruised with spade, from the 

 under side, so that the cut will set flat upon the ground. From this cut 

 many little rootlets start out and go directly and naturally into the soil. 

 Hence the necessity of following this plan. With your hand place all the 

 main and fibrous roots in their natural position. Now let some one sprinkle 

 on fine soil plentifully, while you perforate the same with your fingers, see- 

 ing that every vacancy is thoroughly filled and made compact about the 

 roots. After this has been accomplished, fill in around the tree and pack 

 the soil firmly with your feet and you will have no trouble in making the 

 trees live. 



Cultivate with some hoed crop four or five years, never letting it lie in sod 

 more than two years at a time, if you would keep it healthy and vigorous. 



HOW TO PLOW THE ORCHARD WITH HORSES. 



Have a low name harness; take turrets out of back pad; give horses loose 

 check or none at all. Length of double whiffletrees, two and one-half feet; 

 single whiffletrees, 22 inches. Wind whiffletree next to tree thoroughly with 

 heavy cloth ; put a man hold of the plow handles, and set him to work with 

 this injunction : " Sooner skin your own shins than bark a tree." 



PRUNING. 



In growing the orchard we should grow it for fruit. In pruning have the 

 same end in view. 



This is not a very complicated art, and yet there is a science about it. 



1st. Decide whether it shall be high or low. My preference is for the 

 medium, all things considered. 



2d. When to trim: June is said to be the preferable month, in which I 

 quite agree ; but do not always comply. Another very good time is from the 

 15th of February to the 20th of March, before the frost is out of the ground 

 and when the weather is not too cold. 



HOW TO TRIM. 



See that the branches are well balanced and properly thinned out, to let 

 in air and sunlight, leaving the west side of the top the heaviest, as it pro- 

 tects the tree from cold blasts in winter and the trunk from " sun scald " in 

 summer. 



One eminent Professor has said, "Never cut a limb off a limb." In this 

 I can not quite agree. Take the Northern Spy for example, that is noted 

 for its upright and matty growth ; thin it out to the required number of 

 main branches to make a well-balanced top when young, and it will not be 

 long before the tree itself, so to speak, will beg for the thinning process to 



