56 EXPERIMENTS 



of ground, at 30 feet apart ; the site of an old orchard 

 of ISO trees of indifferent summer fruit, planted at 60 

 feet distance. I wished to make an experiment, to try 

 the fitness of the scite of an old orchard for a new 

 plantation of apple-trees. In some instances, the young 

 trees came near the stumps of the old trees I dug 

 out the old earth and filled the holes, which were deep 

 and wide, with surface earth and mud I have since 

 hauled mud round the trees, and over the whole sur- 

 face, probably two hundred loads per acre; the orchard 

 thrives well, but not equal to the adjoining lots, parts 

 of which were planted the same season. From the 

 result of part of my experiment number one, and from 

 this confirmation of that result, I am satisfied with the 

 soundness of the prevailing opinion, against the sites 

 of old orchards for new plantations. Some parts of 

 this orchard have a soil of considerable richness : the 

 greater part is planted with Hewes's crab, unquestion- 

 ably the hardiest, and one of the most vigorous of our 

 native apples nevertheless, the contrast with or- 

 chards on both sides of it, is so striking, as to demon- 

 strate the comparative unfitness of the soil for the pur- 

 poses of a new plantation. 



This remark however ought not to be applied to 

 the spots where young trees, or those even of middling 

 age, have grown in filling up vacancies in growing 

 orchards, the deterioration of soil produced by the 



