PLANTING ANT) PRUNING. 



and all the north, cannot live here. The European grapes cannot succeed in the 

 open air even on our southern walls. The gooseberry, so much prized abroad, is 

 here an inferior fruit, with a thick skin, and is often unproductive; marked differ- 

 ences prevail even among the species best adapted to both climates, as, for in- 

 stance, the apple, pear, and cherry. The raspberries, which stand the English 

 winters with perfect impunity, must be protected here during our keen winter 

 blasts. The chestnut, which proves so hardy here as to brave 10 and 15° below 

 zero, is a poor tree in Northern France and Belgium, always blighted by frost or 

 other causes, and dying piecemeal after a limited existence. 



Some fruits, as the peach, the currant, and the strawberry, are superior in 

 America, or fully equal to the best varieties in the most favored zones of Europe, 

 and if it were not for that unconquerable curculio, plums, apricots, and nectarines 

 would prove as luscious and delicate as on any spot of our globe. 



Hence the necessity of applying different rules to the treatment of the same 

 species of fruits, as well in planting as the further management of the tree. It is 

 well known that a tree, freshly taken from the nursery and exposed for some hours 

 to the influence of a fine autumn day, is materially injured, owing, perhaps, to 

 the absorbent action of our atmosphere ; while in Europe, in a more damp medium, 

 the same tree can be left exposed for days to all influences, frost excepted, with 

 comparative impunity. 



The long and forever controverted question, "When shall we plant?" naturally 

 takes its place in the outset of these remarks. 



And first, let it be well understood, that the first condition required to replant 

 a tree with success, is that it he taken up with proper care. All mashed, broken, 

 or stripped roots are injurious when left, and ought to be cut with a sharp knife ; 

 the epiderm or bark of the root seems not to heal up so readily as the bark of the 

 tree; hence the necessity of leaving nothing but sound roots with a clean section 

 or cutting, if cut at all, at the end; very small fibres or roots are of no use, ac- 

 cording to Van Mons, when the tree has not been freshly taken up, and after a 

 long transportation; they are soon deprived of all vitality, and are drawbacks 

 instead of useful agents. 



Now, when shall we plant, supposing we have the choice and everything at 

 hand ? Much depends on the weather, and the condition of the soil. It is always 

 better to have a comparatively dry soil and fine weather, except in the case of 

 plants with wiry roots, such as those of the hemlocks, &c. &c. I have been in 

 the habit for years of preparing the holes as early as possible, either in late sum- 

 mer or early fall. I have two objects in view. First, the sods or detritus, mixed 

 with the soil which is put in the holes after the bad subsoil, rock, ore, or stiff 

 clay has been removed, have time to undergo a fermentation, injurious to the 

 roots, when it takes place directly after planting; and, secondly, my heap of 

 reserved good soil next to the holes, is mellow and best fitted to fall between the 

 roots, and fill up all the intervening spaces by gently shaking the tree when it is 

 covered with fine soil. The shaking must be quick and short, not lifting the 



