GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF ORCHARDS. 165 



Another thing in preparing apple-trees to endure the 

 winter without injury in addition to the foregoing is a 

 mulch or covering for the surface, with some vegetable ma- 

 terial in a state of decomposition, which will shelter the 

 roots and impart warmth, evolved by its slow combustion ; 

 and the more valuable this mulch will be if nitrogenous 

 matter is included, as in stable manure. This application is 

 of vastly more benefit, when applied in the autumn, than if 

 left till spring, not only on account of the shelter it affords, 

 but because of its advancing a strong growth early in the 

 spring, which becomes well ripened before winter ; whereas, 

 manure applied in the spring, especially if raw, often does 

 not become effective until late in the season, when the wood 

 should be ripening instead of growing. A ripe, well-var- 

 nished and finished coat of bark is to the tree what the coat 

 of hair is to the animal ; and the effect of a small break or 

 rent in it shows how important its perfect condition is, es- 

 pecially that of its outer skin or epidermis. It must be 

 remembered that the dark only ripens well in full light. 

 Trees, therefore, must have their wood both well fed and 

 thoroughly ripened, or they will not possess sufficient vital- 

 ity to endure the extreme cold of our Northern winters. 



Certain writers at the present time are advocating the 

 efficacy of root-pruning as the most reliable way to promote 

 hardiness during the winter. But it will be found that by 

 employing such an instrument as is illustrated on p. 133 to 

 clip the terminal shoots, and thus induce the new wood to 

 harden before cold weather, apple-trees will endure the cold 

 more satisfactorily than if they had been root-pruned. 



Protecting Apple-trees from Stock and other Animals. 



If cattle and horses may enter to crop, 



Young trees are in danger of losing the top. EDWARDS. 



Horses and colts will nip off the branches and gnaw off 

 the bark of young trees; horned cattle will browse the 



