ABOUT FRUITS, FLOWERS AND *F ARMING. 99 



and remarkably improved by the process. The wet, level, 

 beech-lands would be greatly benefited by deep plowing 

 in the fall of the year, subjecting the earth, to a consider 

 able depth, to the action of the frosts, rains, etc., and giving 

 a downward drain for superfluous moisture. 



Although we have incidentally alluded to the benefits of 

 subsoiling, they deserve a separate and individual enume 

 ration. 



1. In very deep molds or loams it brings up a supply of 

 soil which has not been exhausted by the roots. 



2. In soils whose fertility is dependent upon the constant 

 decomposition of mineral substances, subsoil plowing is 

 advantageous by bringing up the disintegrated particles 

 of rock, and exposing them to a more rapid change by con 

 tact with atmospheric agents. 



3. Subsoiling guards both against too much and too little 

 moisture in the soil. If there is more water than the soil 

 can absorb, it sinks through the pulverized under-soil. If 

 summer droughts exhaust the moisture of the surface they 

 cannot reach the subsoil, which affords abundant pasture to 

 the roots. 



FIRE-BLIGHT AND WINTER KILLING. 



THESE are two entirely different processes. The Fire 

 Blight (of the middle and western States), is a disease of 

 the circulatory system, induced by a freezing of the sap 

 while the tree is in a growing and excitable state. It 

 always must occur before the leaves are shed in the autumn- 

 Winter-killing is of two kinds resulting from severe cold, 

 and from untimely heat. The loss of tender shrubs, roses, 

 etc., at least, before they are fully established, and of half- 

 hardy fruit-trees, is occasioned by the winter sun shining 

 warmly upon them while frozen, and suddenly thawing 



