THE GARDEN WEEK BY WEEK 



Feb. can hardly be such a thing as soil being too dry in 



^"^4 winter. 



Methods of Plartting Fruit. — Modern opinion, seems 

 undecided on the question of deepening soil for fruit by 

 bastard trenching, as gardeners do for vegetables (see 

 remarks in the January chapter). Some growers hold 

 the view that the circumstances of fruit and vegetable 

 growing are so essentially different that the one is of no 

 value as a guide to the other. There is something in 

 this. Nearly all vegetables are annual crops, and the 

 ground on which they grow is regularly broken, so that 

 after it has once been stirred deeply it has no chance of 

 settling down again into the solid mass which was its 

 state before cultivation began. Fruit trees are permanent 

 crops. Such tillage as they are subjected to is confined 

 to shallow digging with a fork, and consequently the 

 ground is liable to become compacted again two or 

 three years after planting. But I am not prepared to 

 admit that the labour of loosening the under soil is 

 necessarily wasted because the ground thus settles back. 

 If the work has the effect of giving the tree a good start, 

 it is repaid. 



On two points, however, there ought not to be any 

 division of opinion — the value of firm planting and of 

 surface manuring. The former is desirable because it 

 brings about that intimate association between root and 

 soil which is so essential for root formation, and the 

 latter tends to keep the roots near the surface. 



Human nature is very trying with regard to its fruit 

 trees. Persuade a man to plant his trees wide apart, in 

 order to give them plenty of room, and he will probably go 

 and intercrop close up to the stems with vegetables, over- 

 looking the fact that vegetables absorb the same kind of 

 food as fruit, and will certainly rob the trees. This is a 

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