Horticulture and Fruit Raisikg. 335 



pose in the soil, thus causing no injury to the voung roots 

 of the trees. In choosing your trees I think you would be 

 well paid, when it is convenient to do so, to visit the nur- 

 sery from which they are to be taken, selecting none others 

 than your experience has taught you are both hardy and 

 productive, and when you see a tree of two summers' 

 growth that stands superior to those of its companions of 

 the same age, that is the tree for you, as you may be assured 

 that its root is liealthy. 



In regard to the distance we should set our trees from 

 each other, I find a great diversity of opinion. But my 

 views are to set them about twenty feet apart each way, giv- 

 ing the limbs a chance to expand ten feet in each direction, 

 before coming in contact with each other, which will give a 

 very fine top. I would encourage the cultivation of the 

 soil but very few years, say five or six at the most, with due 

 caution never to get too near the young tree with the plow 

 or cultivator ; but let the soil near the tree be stirred with 

 the hoe. At tlie age of five or six years I would seed the 

 land, but continue to keep the soil loose near the tree for 

 a space of five feet in diameter until the trees are old 

 enough to bear fruit. 



In setting the tree much care should be observed in open- 

 ing a space sufficiently large and deep so as not to cramp 

 the root of the tree, but give it plenty of room, so that each 

 root shall occupy its natural position in the soil, taking par 

 ticular pains that the fibrous roots are not laid in a mass 

 together. I think it a fine thing to use all the waste bones 

 at hand, placing them at the extremities of the roots. Oys- 

 ter shells may be used with equal propriety, all these having 



