REMOVING AND TRANSPLANTING TREES. 99 



fruits could be planted in the intervals of the apple-trees 

 without injury to the latter? In most instances, with fair 

 cultivation, on a fertile soil, apple-trees, thirty-three feet dis- 

 tant, will in the course of some sixteen to twenty years near- 

 ly cover the whole ground, and will be injured, more or less, 

 in their thrif tiness and productiveness, by other trees grow- 

 ing between. But, as the trees are many years reaching 

 that size, and remain quite small for a time, reliable pomol- 

 ogists are inclined to favor this practice, where it is desired 

 to make the most of the land for fruit-trees, provided a con- 

 tinued and enriching system of cultivation is adopted, by 

 applying manure, turning under clover, and an occasional 

 broadcast dressing of lime or ashes. J. J. Thomas says, 

 touching this subject, that the roots of the peach, as we 

 have found by decisive experiments, extend quite as far as 

 the height of the tree ; and therefore they soon form a net- 

 work of roots over a circle whose diameter is twice as great 

 as the height of the tree. Apples do nearly the same ; and 

 consequently, in a few years after setting out the orchard, 

 the whole surface of the ground is covered with the roots 

 of each, a few inches beneath the surface. The peach-trees 

 will, therefore, soon interfere with those of the apple, and 

 necessarily retard them. The apple-trees, after the lapse 

 of a few years, will be lessened in growth by the peach- 

 trees. But the latter probably will have paid for this dam- 

 age by their crops of peaches ; and generous manuring may 

 nearly compensate for the loss. At all events, we have 

 known the practice to succeed well on good soils ; but, as 

 the apple-trees advance, it would be best to keep the peach- 

 trees well shortened back. 



Dwarf pears will prove of no injury whatever to young 

 apple-orchards ; for the dwarfs must have, of necessity, good 

 cultivation and manuring, which will ultimately benefit the 

 apples. The roots of the dwarfs are short, and never ex- 



