50 SOIL, MANURES, SITUA TION, AND ENCLOSURES. 



stimulated to grow too late in the season, and frost strikes 

 them when the wood is immature. It however happens, in 

 the ordinary practice of the country, that where one peach or 

 apricot tree is injured by too rich a cultivation, more than a 

 hundred suffer by diminished growth from neglect. 



Clayey and light soils in some cases require opposite man- 

 agement. The former, for instance, is much benefited by the 

 admixture of chip-dirt, which renders it looser, lighter, and 

 more retentive of moisture. But on light soils the effect is 

 not so beneficial, and is sometimes positively injurious. 



Peaty and spongy soils are particularly unfitted for tender 

 fruits. They are very likely to suffer from summer droughts. 

 If the season is propitious, the plants are likely to make a 

 long, soft growth and to be injured by the succeeding winter. 

 It is a cardinal principle that all tender fruits should go into 

 the winter with well-hardened wood. 



MANURES. 



Nothing for general use is equal to stable manure, and in 

 ordinary cases it will be found to give the most uniform and 

 satisfactory results more especially if it is made the basis of 



FIG. 79. Draining Orchards. 



a compost with peat, muck, or turf from old pastures, with a 

 tenth or a fifteenth of leached ashes, and half that of bone- 

 dust. If these are thoroughly mixed with the soil down to a 

 depth of. a foot or more, by subsoiling, trench-ploughing, and 

 cross-ploughing, in connection with repeated harrowings, fine 

 trees and excellent fruit may be confidently expected even on 



