94 THE APPLE CULTURIST. 



In the spring of 1843, when planting the first trees for our 

 own orchard, there were a few places where holes could 

 not be dug with a spade, as the earth for several feet in 

 depth was composed of fragments of slate and small boul- 

 ders. Neither could the ground be ploughed. A thick 

 and tough sod of Kentucky blue-grass rested on the sur- 

 face; but roots of trees could spread among the stones 

 without difficulty. Hence we resolved to try the doubtful 

 experiment of setting trees without digging any holes. 

 Stake-holes were first worked down through the stones 

 with a crow-bar, and stakes were driven in firmly to sup- 

 port the trees. The roots were then spread out on the 

 grassy sod as a tree was held near a stake, after which a few 

 bushels of mellow soil were shovelled from a loaded wagon 

 around each tree, sufficient to cover the roots with about 

 two inches of mellow dirt. The body of each tree was 

 then tied firmly to the stake ; and the surface of the ground 

 round about the trees was mulched with coarse, strawy 

 barn-yard manure, covering an area of about eight feet in 

 diameter. Pieces of boards, old rails, and brush were laid 

 on the mulch to prevent fowls from removing the coarse 

 material. Amidst the sneers of those who knew that such 

 a mode of planting was superlatively ridiculous, and could 

 never prove at all satisfactory, we waited in doubtful sus- 

 pense for the result. The trees that were set in mellow 

 ground, around which the surface was kept clean and free 

 from vegetation, grew a few inches higher and broader, 

 while every tree that was set on the grassy surface threw 

 out branches of good ripe wood, laterally and vertically, 

 from one to four feet in length, before winter. The first 

 season some gentlemen called to learn the secret of such a 

 wonderful growth, and measured the new wood just before 

 the leaves had fallen, and found many branches over four 

 feet in length. After the first season, the branches did not 



