ORCHARD AND FRUIT GARDEN. H 



" To CAUSE THE TREES TO THRIVE. The ground where 

 they are planted must be kept cultivated ; young trees will 

 not thrive if the grass be permitted to form a sod around 

 them ; and if it should be necessary to plant them in grass 

 grounds, care must be taken to keep the earth mellow and 

 free from grass for three or four feet distant around them, 

 and every autumn some well-rotted manure should be dug 

 in around each tree, and every spring the bodies of the 

 Apple, Pear, Plum, and Cherry trees, and others that it is 

 particularly desirable to promote the growth of, should bo 

 brushed over with common soft soap, undiluted with water ; 

 this treatment will give a thriftiness to the trees surpassing 

 the expectation of any one who has not witnessed its effect. 

 Should the first season after transplanting prove dry, regular 

 watering will be necessary, as from neglect of proper atten- 

 tion in this respect, many lose a large portion of their trees 

 during a drought "* 



Such kinds of fruit trees treated on in this work, as may 

 require any other than good ordinary soil, may be supplied, 



* The following letter was received by the Author while he was pre- 

 paring the copy fur the ninth edition of this work : 



" In reading your very useful and entertaining work on Gardening, 

 Planting Trees, and otherwise, I need not say, to me, it contained much 

 that was new, original, and very useful ; yet, complete as is your admirable 

 work, I found not therein one circumstance connected with replanting 

 trees, of vital importance to be observed, particularly with those trees 

 which have attained several years' growth, say trees from fifteen to twenty 

 feet high, and from three to five inches diameter. Some seven or eight feet 

 above the root, that is to say, at the time of digging up the tree, a mark 

 should be made on the north or south side of the tree ; and on replanting 

 the same, it should be set into the ground as nearly as possible in the same 

 position to the sun (north or south) as it occupied before taken up, other- 

 wise the tree will not be so thrifty ; if its sides are changed, it not unfre- 

 quently appears sickly, and ultimately dies. Over twenty years' experi- 

 ence in replanting some thousands of hard and soft Maple, Elm, and 

 others, enables me to speak positively on this precaution. Whenever the 

 community calls for another edition of your work, in that part relating to 

 Replanting Trees, if you deem the above suitable for insertion therein, it 

 might assist many who have not this knowledge, and oblige, 



" Yours with esteem, JOHN CLOWES, C. E." 



