LOCATION, TRENCHING, ETC. 



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 is a 

 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 



