152 THE APPLE CULTURIST. 



sound. Frequent working of the soil in hot weather greatly 

 augments its capacity to condense moisture from the at- 

 mosphere, and to retain it after it has been absorbed. Cul- 

 tivation is essential to the thrifty growth of any apple-tree. 

 The difference between the size of trees when cultivated, 

 at the end of five years, and of those allowed to stand in 

 grass, will be greatly in favor of the former. It is not the 

 land we wish to improve, but the tree ; it is not potatoes 

 and beans we desire to raise, but to fit the soil in such man- 

 ner that hereafter it will give food enough to the tree to 

 enable it to raise large crops of apples. Every tree should 

 be tilled like a hill of corn or potatoes. Yearly, as the 

 roots extend, a wider space around the trunk should be cul- 

 tivated. The whole ground should be spaded and hoed, 

 mulched and manured, or scarified from row to row. 



Ridging Fruit-orchards. The aim should always be to 

 keep the surface of the ground as level as a lawn. Apple- 

 trees should never be " earthed up," as is sometimes done, 

 by ploughing the ground in ridges, and turning the fur- 

 rows at every ploughing towards the trees. J. W. Clarke, 

 of Wisconsin, gave an account recently of the fatal injury 

 to a young orchard on a farm which he had recently pur- 

 chased. He says that, " the owner having left the State, 

 the land was rented to three or four successive tenants, and 

 each one took the easiest way to plough the ground ; and, 

 as the result proved, the surest to destroy the trees. At 

 every ploughing, for five years, the ground was ridged up 

 against the trees, so that when I took possession the stems 

 were earthed up, on an average, eighteen inches, and some 

 of them considerably more, above the depth they were set, 

 and of course above that at which they stood in the nursery." 



"The result was that, between 1857 and 1861, one-half the 

 trees were, half rotted through, above the general level of 

 the ground, but below the tops of the ridges, which stupid 



