LOCATION, TRENCHING, ETC. 41 
CHAPTER VI. 
LOCATION—TRENCHING-—DRAINAGE—CULTIVATION. 
Location.—The planter should select the best spot 
at his command. In deciding which is best, he will 
need to consider well the kinds of soil as well as their 
location, and secure the greatest number of the conditions 
of success. If his valley is wet and subject to frost, he 
must go up on the hill-side, and, if need be, plant on the 
hill-top. 
As to aspects, any may be selected when the other 
conditions are equally favorable. A northern aspect is 
to be preferred, where the season is long enough to insure 
the ripening of the fruit, because it is safer from late 
spring frosts. In the Middle and Southern States this 
will generally be the case. A southwest exposure will 
have advantages at the North, because, when there isa 
frost, the morning sun will be more gradual in its effects. 
For a like reason, trees near a large body of water escape 
frost by its ameliorating influence ; and in case of frosts, 
the slight fogs that may rise soften the rays of the 
morning sun enough to prevent the injury of a sudden 
thaw. On the banks of a small stream in a deep ravine 
would be a bad location almost anywhere in the Northern 
States, because of the danger from frost. 
TRENCHING.—One of the objects of trenching is to 
improve a soil that is too sandy by the admixture of clay 
from a suitable subsoil beneath it. If the subsoil is not 
clayey, then the surface soil must be improved by clay 
top-dressings and the coarser manures. If farm-yard 
manure has been composted with peat, swamp muck, or 
river mud, it is all the better. The trenching may be 
done either by the spade or the plow. If done by hand, 
go down twice the depth of the spade, and the work will 
