CULTIVATION OF SEEDLINGS. 49 



To secure the proper mean requires good and caro 

 ful management. The soil should rather be a rich 

 mould from an old pasture or meadow, than one re- 

 cently manured ; and not largely composed of leaf or 

 swamj) muck, which would tend to form a succulent 

 and unripe growth. When but a few thousand are 

 needed — the best plan is to 'form a bed in some dry or 

 well drained spot, in the following manner — for 

 10,000 seedlings, dig out a space thirty feet by fifty, 

 two feet dee]), and return only the surface soil ; to 

 this add ; earth from old headlands, sods from a 

 pasture, which have been rotted during the previous 

 summer, with three or four loads of leaf or swamp 

 muck, which has been one year exposed, and a similar 

 quantity of well rotted barn-yard manure. These, 

 with a bushel or two of lime, or what is greatly 

 preferred, fifty pounds of super-phosphate of lime, 

 should be thoroughly intermixed ; and the seed sown 

 in rows one foot apart. In this manner, if the season 

 should prove to be one of drought, the bed may be 

 watered and shaded from the sun during the hottest 

 weather. It is important to obtain a large early 

 growth ; so that, by the first of August, they should be 

 at least a foot to eighteen inches high, and quite stocky. 

 It would be much better if the seedlings could have 

 a greater distance between them ; but this peculiar 

 management would be found quite impracticable on a 

 large scale. Xewly-cleared wood land, when dry, and 

 cultivated for two years, is favorable to the growth 

 of seedlings ; and in all cases, soil which has not before 

 grown fruit trees, must be selected, and nearly or quite 

 as deeply tilled as the bed above described. Unless 



