64 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 



treatment can only be best done before the trees are set out : 

 so that before we send our orders to the nurseryman we should 

 have finished our draining, subsoiling, and trenching. As to 

 spring or fall planting, opinions vary, and vary chiefly because 

 of different nature and conditions of soil with various tree- 

 planters. Mr. Barry's experience is, that in a good, dry, well- 

 prepared soil, fruit-trees may be planted at any time after the 

 wood is ripe in the fall (a period indicated not by the fall of 

 the leaf, but by the perfect formation of the terminal leaf-buds, 

 and the changing tints of the foliage), until the freezing of the 

 ground ; and, in spring, from the time when the frost is out 

 and the ground dry enough to work, until the buds have made 

 some considerable advancement toward opening. Generally 

 the more tender trees, such as the peach, apricot, and nectarine, 

 should at the North be planted in spring, as winter acts 

 severely upon them after transplanting. This is the better 

 mode, but fall planting of even these tender, juicy-wooded 

 trees, is often successful, if precaution be used. The foil 

 planter must never forget to mulch the roots with several 

 inches' depth of leaf-mold, half-rotted manure, or some such 

 material as will modify the action of frost on the roots and tree- 

 trunk. A neglect of proper preparations for planting causes 

 great loss. The majority of trees from the nursery, by unskil 

 ful removal, have mutilated roots ; if the tree were set without 

 proper pruning, most of these roots would rot, and those which 

 escaped would grow feebly for a long time. All these bruised 

 and broken roots must be pruned close up to the sound wood 

 with a sharp knife, the cut being made perfectly smooth and 

 almost straight across, so as to present as little surface as pos 

 sible. Never cut the roots downward, or so as to have the 

 slope on the upper side of the wood, but upward; for in any 

 other case the water would get between the bark and wood 

 and rot off the root, while if rightly done new rootlets will be 

 put forth from the root end, and all go on well. All broken 

 branches must be removed, and then the whole top be reduced 



