MAKING THE ORCHARD. 49 



this is entirely unnecessary, indeed some of our 

 best orchards were made by planting in the virgin 

 prairie sod, and which was not broken afterwards. 

 In these cases the ground was subdued by heavy 

 mulching. 



In poor or thin soil it is a great advantage to 

 dig the holes considerably deeper than necessary 

 for setting the tree, and then filling up in part with 

 top soil. The holes need not be dug wider than is 

 required to properly adjust all the roots without 

 crowding. If the root grows at all it is equally 

 strong and piercing when one day old as it will be 

 in ten years, and if it can ever force itself through 

 the hard ground it can do it the first year. 



For reasons given in our chapter on the nursery 

 it will be well to plant the tree some deeper than 

 it stood in the nursery. Say 3 inches in upland 

 clay soil, and 5 to 6 in sand. 



If trees are procured the fall before planting and 

 buried, before this is done the bruised ends of all 

 roots should be cut off with a sharp knife, always 

 cutting from the under side so that the cut surface 

 shall be generally at a right angle to the stem of 

 the tree. If this is done in the fall and the 

 roots buried moderately deep, say i^ to 2 feet 

 it will be found that the tree has not been idle 

 during the winter, but that there has been a 

 nice callusing of all these cut surfaces which is 

 the first stage of root making. In fact if preserved 

 without too much injury, this at once takes the 

 place of, and performs the office of the roots, 



