^Cultivation of Grafs Land.PlantingAppU-TreesSefffons proper for 



In making a plantation, the autumn is the mod eligible feafon ; but if from any 

 caufe, the planting be delayed till fpring, the trees will fucc ced perfectly well, if the 

 foil or fucceeding feafon be ; ot remarkably dry. When the trees have once takert 

 root in the hop plantation or tillage, they will not require any thing more than pro 

 tection from the planter; but in the pa It u re, the ground fhould be annually dug 

 three or four feet wide round each, during the fir ft four or five years after they ate 

 put in. 



Apple-trees being naturally very full of branches, frequently require the opera-- 

 tion of pruning ; and, when properly Executed, great advantages will be found ta 

 arife from it : but, as generally performed, the injury the trees fuftain is much 

 greater than the benefit they receive. It has been obfervcd that, &quot;the ignorant pru- 

 nergets into the middle of the tree,and lays about him to right and left, till he leaves 

 only fmall tufts of branches at the extremities of the large boughs. Thefe branch 

 es, now receiving the whole nou rife men t of the tree of cotirfe increafe rapidly, and 

 foon become, when loaded with fruit or fnow, too heavy for the long naked boughs^ 

 which are of neceflity full of dead knots from the former labours of the pruner, to 

 fupport. Many hundred trees annually perifli from this caufe. It is believed,,, 

 the prefent fyftern of pruning ought to be precifely reverfed, and that the pruner 

 Ihould confine himfelf almoft entirely to the extremities of the bearing brancheSj 

 \vhich are always too full of wood, and leave the internal part of the tree nearly as 

 he finds it. Large branches fhould rarely, or never, be amputated.*&quot; 



The principal reafons of trees of this fort not producing fruit as regularly as 

 crops in any other cafes, are the effects of froft in the fpring months, as in April, 

 and thofe of blights in the following. The former is found to be moft dangerous 

 when it comes on fuddenly, while the blow is moifl. It has been remarked by the 

 author of the Philofophy of Agriculture and Gardening, &quot;that the early bloflbms 

 of apple and many other trees are frequently deftroyed by an excefs of cold ; and 

 Mr. Knight aflerts, that the hazinefs of the air which ufually accompanies warm 

 days and frofty nights, with a north-eaft wind, in the fpring, is injurious to the 

 bloflbms of every tree, and particularly fo to that of the apple; for the warmth of 

 the day hatches the eggs of the infect which breeds in it, whilft the coldnefs of the 

 night, by checking the progrefs of the fap, retains the bloflbm in its half expand 

 ed ftate to form a nidus for it. This infect, which aflumes the winged ftate in 



* Knight on the Apple and Pear. 



