174 THE APPLE CULTURIST. 



being stirred, becomes closely packed. The roots of the 

 trees also fail to get a good supply of moisture when it is 

 most wanted. The tree is exhausted in its effort to mature 

 the crop. Besides this, if grass is allowed to grow round 

 about fruit-trees, the roots are deprived of the best kind of 

 a mulch a mellow surface, frequently worked. It is a fact 

 which can not be refuted, that heavy clay loams, which have 

 a great capacity to absorb moisture, can be kept moist by 

 frequent stirring of the surface during very dry weather, 

 when a thin dressing of mulch would fail to keep the ground 

 moist. But some soils are too porous to be kept moist by 

 frequent stirring. 



Well, what shall a beginner do, when authorities disa- 

 gree ? Adopt the system of management in which they will 

 agree. When young fruit-trees standing in grass ground 

 send out luxuriant shoots at the end of every branch, over 

 one foot long annually, the trees are growing fast enough ; 

 and it would not be advisable to cultivate the surface, as 

 the trees might be stimulated to produce a growth too lux- 

 uriant for the hardiness of the young branches. On the 

 contrary, if the entire soil is kept clean and mellow through 

 the growing season, and the annual growth of the branches 

 does not exceed one foot in length upward and laterally, it 

 is a certain indication that every tree needs a few bushels 

 of ashes, a bushel or two of lime, or a dressing of clay, or 

 sand, or muck, or barn-yard manure, or the soil needs under- 

 draining. Grass would be ruinous to such trees. When it- 

 is desirable to keep the ground in grass, spread a bountiful 

 top-dressing, and mulch round about every tree. There is 

 an excellent influence exerted by the character of a thin, 

 mellow surface on the roots of a growing tree. These 

 roots may be at the first only half a foot below ; yet daily 

 stirring but an inch of the surface may quadruple the 

 growth of the length of every branch. 



