GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF ORCHARDS. 155 



By many beginners, who do not understand how to ap- 

 ply mulch, a small heap of material is piled up close to 

 the foot of the tree, without one moment's reflection as to 

 the position of the roots that need the benefit. Now it 

 may be laid down as a rule which is not far from being 

 correct, that the length of the roots which radiate on all 

 sides from the base of an apple-tree is about equal to the 

 height of the tree itself. If, for example, a young fruit- 

 tree is ten feet high, then we may infer that the roots form 

 a circle about twenty feet in diameter, the base of the tree 

 constituting the centre. Over this great surface, the finer 

 and more inconspicuous roots form a net- work of fibres; 

 and to derive full benefit from manure, cultivation, and 

 mulching, a broad space of ground must be covered with 

 manure and mulch. 



Wood Ashes for Apple-trees. Many of my readers, doubt- 

 less, can recollect instances where a fruit-tree has stood near 

 a large heap of leached ashes; and sometimes the ashes 

 have been thrown out of the leach for several years, so that 

 every noxious weed and grass has been killed by the lib- 

 eral top-dressing of wood ashes. But the fruit that was 

 produced on the tree near the ashes was always plump and 

 smooth. I well remember, when a small lad, that there 

 were two peach-trees near my father's leach, around which 

 the leached ashes had destroyed all vegetation; and the 

 old trees seemed to cling to life with the desperation of a 

 drowning man. But the fruit was always large, and very 

 smooth and luscious, as long as there was sufficient vitality 

 in the last twig to produce a fruit-bud. This fact assured 

 me that fruit-trees require wood ashes. Consequently, after 

 I commenced operations on my own farm, every bushel of 

 ashes was spread around fruit-trees ; and many loads were 

 hauled five miles to be scattered around fruit-trees. The 

 result was, that in after years, when fruit-trees in all that 



