QRCHARDS. 43 



Apple trees should be so formed, as to allow a man 

 and horse to pass under them in ploughing ; this el- 

 evation of the branches, while it protects them from 

 cattle, opens the ground to the salutary influence of the 

 sun, on the crops of grain and grass. 



No error is more universal, than an anxiety for ear- 

 ly productiveness in an orchard ; it is generally obtain- 

 ed at the expense of much eventual profit, and by a 

 great diminution of the size and vigour of the trees ; 

 believing early fecundity to be injurious to the vigour 

 and perfection of plants, I am always attentive to pluck 

 from the trees these evidences of early maturity, in the 

 first stages of their existence. 



It was a common practice, some years since, to apply 

 Mr. Forsytes celebrated composition to large wounds 

 produced by pruning : that novelty, like many others, 

 had its day among us ; and has finally lost its popular- 

 ity, from a general belief of its inefficacy Mr. Forsyth 

 at a later period announced, as anew r discovery, what 

 had been long known in this part of our country ; 

 that an application of cow dung and urine, was more 

 efficacious in healing the wounds of trees than his 

 plaister, even in the moist climate of England : In 

 America, our winter frosts decompose it, and our 

 summer heats dry it up so completely, as to render it 

 useless for the purposes intended. 



