6 FRUIT BOOK. 



up the hole, pressing the earth moderately around 

 the trees with the foot. The moist earth, being 

 covered by the loose surface soil, will retain its 

 humidity for a long time. Indeed, we rarely find 

 it necessary to water again after planting in this 

 way ; and a little muck or litter placed around the 

 tree, upon the newly moved soil, will render it 

 quite unnecessary. Frequent surface watering is 

 highly injurious, as it causes the top of the soil 

 to bake so hard as to prevent the access of air and 

 light, both of which, in a certain degree, are ab- 

 solutely necessary. 



" 4. Avoid the prevalent error (so common and 

 so fatal in this country) of planting your trees too 

 deep. They should not be planted more than an 

 inch deeper than they stood before. If they are 

 likely to be thrown out by the frost of the first 

 winter, heap a little mound about the stem, to be 

 removed again in the spring. 



"5. If your soil is positively bad, remove it 

 from the holes, and substitute a cart-load or two 

 of good garden mould. Do not forget that plants 

 must have ^ooe?. Five times the common growth 

 may be realized by preparing holes six feet in 

 diameter and twice the usual depth, enriching and 

 improving the soil by the plentiful addition of 

 good compost. Young trees cannot be expected 

 to thrive well in sod Imid. When a young or- 

 chard must be kept in grass, a circle should be 

 kept dug around each tree, we think, to the ex- 

 tent or spread of the branches. But cultivation 

 of the land will cause the trees to advance more 

 rapidly in five years than they will in ten, when 

 it is allowed to remain in grass." 



Deep planting of fruit trees is, we believe, a 



