ORCHARDS. 73 



soil is wet constantly, trees will not grow. Surface draining, 

 or some other method, must be adopted to drain the land, that 

 the soil may be adapted to the cultivation of fruits. Do this, 

 and your trees will grow. Neglect it and they will not grow. 

 Persons who set out grape vines, for example, in the mud, 

 and expect them to grow and produce fruit, will be disap- 

 pointed. Better not set them out at all. I repeat, we must, 

 in this matter, consult nature. (We should recollect that the 

 opinions expressed by Dr. Long, and Mr. Baldwin are in refer- 

 ence to tree planting in the deep soil on the prairies. 



A correspondent of the American Agriculturist, one of 

 the most valuable journals of the kind in the United States, 

 in regard to " digging holes for trees,'' says, " There is a deal 

 of good horticultural sweat wasted in digging holes for trees? 

 when we dig so deep and wide as the fathers in horticulture 

 have taught. There are unfinished portions of creation, of 

 course, where, in planting an apple tree, it may be necessary 

 to remove a load of gravel, and bring a load and a half of 

 soil — growing trees, as it were, in pots. But would it not 

 save transportation to pack up one's baggage and decamp 

 from such places ? In a fair soil, if the transplanted tree 

 could but have the earth about it to itself, and not be robbed 

 by some nimble-rooted green-crop, under the guise of " cul- 

 tivation," or by grass, or foul Aveeds, of just that ready nutri- 

 ment which the dismembered tree so sorely needs, 15 or 18 

 inches is deep enough for the holes. When the tree tops, (lam 

 thinking of apples), are twenty, thirty, forty feet in diameter, 

 even the deepest holes the most enthusiastic cultivator ever 

 perspired in, are insignificant. Manure, too — Avhy put in 

 under the young tree a Golgotha of bones, old boots, stones, 

 tin pots and what not? One shovelful of old barn yard 

 manure will feed a young tree for a year, perhaps more. 

 Can't we save some of this ardor for the time when the tree 

 needs a little pruning, a twig here and there — and, instead of 

 such extreme generosity with the subsoil at the start, show a 

 continuous disposition to let the tree have the surface soil, 

 which it so delights in ? Can't we keep up the enthusiasm 

 long enough (having secured thrift, which is half the battle 



