A JOG IN THE FRUIT GARDEN. 



261 



ble, and will thoroughly rid you of these 

 enterprising little gentry, that crawl out of 

 the ground in May and June, and quietly 

 play Guv Faux to the roots and stems of 

 the tenderest things that the pot boils. Be- 

 sides, leaving out of sight the virtue of 

 salt as a manure, it helps all dry soils 

 amazingly; giving them greater attraction 

 for moisture, and greater power to hold it 

 in dry weather; and that is no mean thing 

 for a crop that gets thirsty in mid-summer. 

 In the review of your forces at this sea- 

 son, before they go into winter quarters, it 

 is ten to one but you will find, staring you 

 in the face — possibly not ten paces from 

 your door-steps — some excellent old friends, 

 whose acquaintance you begin to be ashamed 

 of, and are sorely tempted to cut at once. 

 I mean some good old fruit trees, still very 

 sound and healthy, but utterly refusing, for 

 years past, to bear any good fruit ! Possi- 

 bly they are Virgalieu or Butter pears, Pip- 

 pin or Pearmain apples, whose good name 

 is a thing handed down to you by your an- 

 cestors ; and you are therefore not a little 

 sorry to cut them. Don't do it. Let us 

 have a little talk over these trees. 



Did they ever bear good fruit in this 

 soil ? " Bless you, yes ! Such fair golden 

 skins, and luscious melting flesh, as I sel- 

 dom see now a-days." How long ago is it 

 that they have stopped bearing such fruit ? 

 " Say a dozen or fifteen years." What 

 have you done for them ? " Not much — 

 scraped the bark, washed it with soap- 

 suds — spread a little compost over such as 

 stand in the grass. Those that stand in 

 the garden, you know, are in good rich soil; 

 so, of course, they could not want for ma- 

 nure." 



This is what my friend says, but I don't 

 believe a word of it — I mean of the last 

 part — that they " don't want for manure." 

 If I were a "Hoosier," or a "Buckeye," I 



should say they don't want " anything else." 

 Have not they the same atmosphere to 

 breathe, the same rain to drink, the same 

 climate to enjoy, as when they bore the 

 fine crops of fruit which you lament? 

 What has changed 1 Nothing ; absolutely 

 nothing, but the soil. 



Need I go any further to establish this ? 

 I hope not. But the soil is probably pitia- 

 bly run out ; run out, past the power alone 

 of stable manure to bring it up again. It 

 is run out, as the chemists say, in " lime 

 and the phosphates." But it can be reno- 

 vated, just as surely as there is manure and 

 lime and the phosphates to be had; and 

 you may set about it now if you please, for 

 this is the best time in the world to begin. 

 Now to do this well, and thoroughly, will 

 cost from two to three dollars a tree, labor 

 and all included. An old officer of this 

 sort, that has been off duty and on half pay 

 for ten or fifteen years, can't be brought 

 into active service again without squaring 

 up old accounts somewhat; and you must 

 make up your mind to this, or else have no 

 further fruits from the old veterans. 



Supposing we commence with a middle 

 aged pear or apple tree, with a sound con- 

 stitution, which has been sulking for some 

 time past on half pay. Now it is all very 

 well to say that this tree don't want animal 

 manure. Its roots have been in the same 

 place for twenty-five or thirty years, with 

 only a little sprinkling of something stimu- 

 lating over the tops of the soil, which the 

 grass indeed has pretty much taken to it- 

 self, or a slight yearly dressing of compost 

 (if it has stood in the garden,) which the 

 vegetables have devoured. Look at its 

 little, short jointed shoots, and unthrifty 

 growth, and you will see that, first of all, 

 it wants manure. 



Very well. Now clear away everything 

 in the shape of trees, shrubs, bushes, or 



