100 THE APPLE CULTUEIST. 



tend very far; and consequently will not soon interfere 

 with the apple roots. They will, however, suffer serious 

 loss from the overshadowing influence of the apple-trees as 

 the latter reach the age of sixteen or twenty years ; and the 

 dwarfs must not be expected to succeed after that. If in 

 ground by themselves, the few pears that succeed best as 

 dwarfs may be expected to flourish, with proper manage- 

 ment, at least fifty years. We would not in any case recom- 

 mend standard pears or plums among apples. 



Planting an Orchard on New Land. In many instances 

 it is desirable to plant an orchard as soon as the forest is 

 removed, before the land has been stumped and ploughed. 

 If the soil does not require under-draining, it will be an 

 excellent practice to put out the trees or plant the seed as 

 soon as the brush and other rubbish can be disposed of. 

 We have sometimes seen fruit-trees planted a few feet 

 from a brush-heap or a pile of stumps, which have been 

 killed by the heat when such rubbish w r as burned. Occa- 

 sionally the place for a fruit-tree will be found where a 

 stump is standing. Let such stumps be taken out at once, 

 and thus provide an excellent hole for setting a tree. 



There is often a wonderful advantage in planting an or- 

 chard on new land when the ground is full of roots. By 

 the time the roots of fruit-trees have got a good start, the 

 roots of the forest-trees will begin to decay. Then the 

 roots of fruit-trees will spread rapidly in the places of the 

 old roots, the decayed material of which will promote a 

 much more rapid gi'owth of the fruit-trees than if they had 

 been planted on old ground. This fact will explain, in a 

 good degree, why fruit-trees flourish more satisfactorily in 

 a new country and on land just cleared, than on old ground 

 of the same quality. 



Cutting off the Tap-root. Read about the Habit of 

 Trees, in Glossary. The recommendation to cut off the 



