PREPARATION OF THE SOIL. 67 



Requisite Elements of Fertility. Whatever earthy ingre- 

 dients are found in the wood, bark, and fruit of trees must 

 be derived from the soil ; and if the soil in which they are 

 planted does not contain all these ingredients, the trees, or 

 the fruit, or both, must necessarily fail. The mechanical 

 condition of the soil is of as much importance in fruit-cul- 

 ture as its chemical constitution. In its preparation, there- 

 fore, the aim should be to secure good depth with perfect 

 drainage. The object is to maintain a moderately luxuriant 

 growth with early and thorough maturity in the wood ; and 

 this can be best attained in comparatively poor soils of mod- 

 erate fertility. As a general rule, a soil which is dry, firm, 

 mellow, and fertile, is well suited to the cultivation of fruit- 

 trees. It should be deep, to allow the extension of the 

 roots ; dry, or else well drained, to prevent injury from 

 stagnant water below the surface ; firm, and not peaty or 

 spongy, to preclude disaster from frost, mildew, and rust. 



Most soils in this country may be much benefited for all 

 decidedly hardy kinds of fruit, as the apple and pear, by 

 good manuring. Shallow soils should be loosened deeply 

 by heavy furrows and manure ; or, if the whole surface can 

 not be thus treated, a strip of ground eight feet wide, where 

 the row of trees is to stand, should be rendered in this way 

 deep and fertile for their growth. The manure should be 

 thoroughly intermixed with the soil by repeated harrow- 

 ings. The only trees which will not bear a high fertility 

 are those brought originally from warmer countries, and 

 liable to suffer from the frost of winter as the peach, nec- 

 tarine, and apricot ; for they are stimulated to grow too late 

 in the season, and frost strikes them when the wood is im- 

 mature. 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. 



