?a THE FRUIT GROWER'S GUIDE. 



spit placed uppermost, disturbing the bottom all the same. The then surface will fee 

 the poorest, but a season's exposure and a dressing of lime will render it quite equal to 

 that turned under, and this will, in its turn, act beneficially on the disturbed soil below. 

 Some good loam placed round the roots in planting will incite new fibres, and a two-feet 

 depth of ameliorated soil insure healthy, fruitful growth for a very long time. 



Where the upper layer of soil is good but not more than a foot deep, and the next 

 foot below has not been moved in digging, yet is not bad, it will suffice to mix the top 

 and bottom soil together, as in turning a compost or manure heap. It is equivalent in 

 benefit to a moderate manuring, and effects improvement through the admixture of the 

 organic with the inorganic elements of an enduring nature. The bottom should be in 

 every instance picked or forked up. If the top soil is only in a fair condition and needs 

 enrichment, it must be kept where it is, or only turned upside down as in digging, the 

 bottom spit being treated in a similar manner. If this could be done a year previous to 

 planting, and a root crop or some other that would necessitate a good manuring, taken, 

 it would be in excellent order for planting with fruit trees. 



Clay soils are improved by the addition of any fresh mellow sandy loam, or the 

 parings of roadsides, commons, or road scrapings ; even ashes, if they are well mixed 

 with the soil, are useful. In cases where the soil is very tenacious, it will be improved 

 by smashed and screened lime rubbish, reserving the finer portions for mixing with the 

 upper part. This coarse stuff broken up to the size of road metal and mixed with the 

 part turned over or spread beneath the two spits, will, if it be ever so stubborn, 

 cause it to lie loose, and by that means bring it within the reach of air and rain, 

 consequently converting the inert substances into useful alimentary matter. The top 

 spit should be kept uppermost as before, but this will occasion some derangement of 

 both, each being benefited by the commingling. Care should be taken to free the mortar 

 rubbish of old laths and other pieces of wood burning or charring them, then spreading 

 on the soil, supplies a fertiliser of the first order. If not so treated they encourage 

 the generation of fungi, which may pass to the roots of trees and be most injurious. 



Very stiff clay with but a few inches of ameliorated surface soil can in no other way 

 be converted into the elements of nutrition so well as by burning. The top spit should 

 be removed down to the solid clay, and a foot of this burned, not roasting it to the 

 condition of bricks, but to such a state as will cause it to crumble and remain so. Mixed 

 with the surface soil a fertile medium will be formed of a most durable kind, in which 

 fruit trees will thrive for a very long time with little or no manuring. 



