ORCHARD FRUIT CULTURE. 



35 



planted. In digging the holes, which I 

 always have, at least, three feet in diame- 

 ter and two rods apart, I do not dig vp the 

 clay subsoil.* I barely loosen it with the 

 spade or pick, as the case may be, and set 

 the trees above it ; and if the hole be not 

 deep enough, which is seldom the case, I 

 make a mound around the tree, three, four, 

 five, or six feet broad, as circumstances re- 

 quire ; and the young tree goes on re- 

 joicing. As soon after planting as practi- 

 cable, I seed, the orchard down into grass ; 

 and for this reason, I never can make my 

 men protect the trees in ploughing and 

 putting in the crops, unless a professional 

 orchardist, or myself, is with them all the 

 time. The first I cannot get at such sea- 

 sons, — as it is always the busiest time with 

 them, and cannot always attend to it my- 

 self; and as all ploughmen instinctively 

 hate a tree, the poor things are sure, more 

 or less of them, to be torn up, or barked 

 and stripped to death at every successive 

 turning up of the soil ; and tell them as 

 much as you will to be careful, your back 

 is hardly turned, before the plough is en- 

 tangled in a young tree, or the harrow is 

 driven remorselessly over it, and years of 

 pains and solicitude are sacrificed. Be- 

 sides, all cereal grains are poison to fruit 

 trees, [by robbing the soil of inorganic 

 manures. Ed.] And I lay the orchard at 

 once into grass, and dig with spade and 

 fork around the trees for two, three, or four 

 feet each way from the stem, and manure 

 them as they progress. Thus they go on 

 vigorously until past danger from the 

 plough, when it may be applied occasionally 

 to great benefit, with a good coat of manure 

 on the soil. Many years of observation 

 have convinced me of the superiority of 



* I have had occasion to remove some trees, six or eight 

 inches in diameter, that had been planted over this subsoil 

 of stiff clay, and found the strongest and largest roots had 

 penetrated into it three and four leet deep. [Is not this be- 

 cause it is a calcareous, and not an argillaceous clay ? Ed.] 



such treatment. When past liability to 

 injury from their size, pasturage by horses, 

 swine, calves, and even grown cattle may 

 be permitted ; but the latter are seldom to 

 be tolerated. Swine, however, are always 

 good for an orchard, — destroying the ver- 

 min, and rooting up the soil. I know seve- 

 ral luxuriant orchards which were never 

 ploughed since the trees were set, and suc- 

 ceeding better than those in grain cultiva- 

 tion, — setting aside the damage by plough 

 and harrow. 



From all the observation I have made, 

 were I to select the best soil for an apple 

 orchard, it should be a deep, strong, clayey 

 loam, intermixed slightly with gravel, over 

 a clay limestone subsoil. I know several 

 orchards, planted on a light sandy loam, in 

 the immediate vicinity of those on clayey 

 loam ; and those on the light soil, at twenty- 

 five or thirty years old, were worn out in a 

 premature old age, while the heavy soiled 

 orchards were in vigorous maturity. Trees 

 which I planted five years since, have al- 

 ready produced considerable crops of fruit, 

 and promise abundantly the coming season. 



Pears. — About ten years ago, I sent an 

 order to an eastern nurseryman, of large 

 reputation and experience, for 50 to 100 

 pear trees of the best kinds for table and 

 general cultivation. The order was an- 

 swered with the trees in due season, ac- 

 companied by a catalogue of high sound- 

 ing names, — English, French, and others. 

 The trees were well grown and healthy ; 

 and I have no doubt, being a gentleman of 

 integrity, that the nurseryman meant to do 

 me justice in his selections. I set them 

 out in my home grounds near the house, 

 when, after a few years, they bore fruit. 

 The kinds were as follows, — all on pear 

 stocks : 



Beurre d'Aremberg, Louise Bonne de 

 Jersey, Princes St. Germain, Marie Louise, 



