FRUIT TREES AND THE BEST MANURES FOR THEM. 



403 



pected to eat something very nearly akin to 

 the richest hride's cake ! 



The second secret, is to pUint them upon 

 the right soil, well prepared. 



So much has been written on the proper 

 soil, for various fruit trees, that we Avill not 

 go over the subject again here. We may, 

 however, remark that there are two trees 

 not yet well understood, as regards the 

 most suitable soil for them. 



These are the pear and the peach. We 

 ^hink the pear cannot, unless with very 

 rare exceptions, be successfully grown in 

 any soil that has been long cultivated, with- 

 out first restoring to that soil the potash, 

 phosphate, and lime, that have been taken 

 from it by continuous cropping. And, with 

 very rare exceptions, we think it will be 

 found that, in our dry climate, it is only 

 upon naturally deep soils, or where the 

 subsoil has been broken up, so as to form a 

 soil 18 inches in depth, that these trees 

 will be uniformly healthy and productive.* 

 It seems to us that there is still a prevalent 

 error, regarding the best soil for the peach. 

 The impression prevails, that the peach is 

 ifinest on light sandy soils. It is quite true 

 5:hat the growth of the tree is rapid, and its 

 «:ulture easiest, upon such soils. But a 

 -■areful comparison of peaches grown in va- 

 rious soils, has convinced us that the flavor 

 and beauty of the fruit are incomparably 

 higher in a mellow loam, than in a lighter 

 find more sandy soil. 



The great importance of deepening all 

 ordinary soil, by trenching or subsoiling, is 

 now so generally known, that no planter, 

 of the least information on the subject, 

 thinks of planting an orchard, or even a 

 tree, without this preliminary step. In no 

 .climate is it so important as ours ; and in 



* On the other hantl, in very deep vcg-etable soils, (as in 

 *orae parts of the western states,) the trees should be planted 

 ..>n little hills or mounds, 18 inches high, to prevent over rapid 

 «rovvtii, and too succulent wood. 



no country, does it so fully repay, in the 

 quadrupled health, vigor, and productive- 

 ness of the tree, the necessary cost and 

 trouble which it involves. 



The third secret, is to supply them with 

 the proper food. 



And this leads us to repeat here what 

 cannot be repeated too often, — that the 

 best general compost for fruit trees, is a 

 mixture of peat and ashes. These two sub- 

 stances alone contain every addition to the 

 soil necessary to the growth of fruit trees. 

 There is hardly any part of the Union 

 where swamp peat (the black, decayed ve- 

 getable matter of low grounds,) cannot be 

 had very cheaply ; and there are few parts 

 of our country where wood ashes, either in 

 a fresh or leached state, cannot be had at a 

 moderate price. Now this peat, as it comes 

 from the swamps, is so saturated with acid 

 that it is almost worthless as a manure ; 

 but mixed Avith ashes, at the rate of five 

 bushels of fresh ashes, or ten bushels of 

 leached ashes, to a waggon load, it becomes 

 nearly equal to cow manure, and far more 

 beneficial to fruit trees, because the com- 

 post contains not only vegetable manure 

 but lime, potash and phosphates ; in other 

 words, the mineral manures, so absolutely 

 essential to the production of fine fruit. 



Taking this mixture of peat and ashes 

 as a general manure for fruit trees, let us 

 turn it into a compost more especially 

 adapted to the different fruits ; for chemical 

 analysis shows a different composition in 

 the apple, and the pear, the plum, and 

 the grape, etc. 



To every cart load of the composted peat 

 and ashes, after it has laid a fortnight, we 

 would add two bushels of air-slaked shell 

 lime, or any other good pure lime. This 

 would be the compost for apple trees. 



To every cart load of the peat and ashes, 

 we would add half a bushel of ground or 



