144 THE NURSERY. 



Planting each species in the soil best adapted to it. 

 Where there are different characters of soils in a nursery, 

 to be planted with a general assortment of stocks, it is 

 important to give to each that which is best adapted to 

 its nature ; thus the pear, apple, and plum should have 

 the richer, deeper, and more compact, or that with most 

 clay. The plum, in particular, succeeds well on a pretty 

 stiff clay. The cherry and peach should have the lightest 

 and warmest. The quince, the Paradise, and Doucin do 

 not require such a deep soil as the pear and the common 

 apple seedlings, because their roots are fibrous, and always 

 remain near the surface ; but it must not be inferred from 

 this that a shallow soil suits these best. 



6th. When to Plant. In parts of the country where 

 the winter is long and severe, or where freezing and thaw- 

 ing are frequent, fall planting cannot be successful ; as the 

 plants, having no hold of the ground, are drawn out and 

 injured; and besides, if the ground is somewhat clayey 

 and tenacious, the heavy rains that occur early in the 

 spring will make it so compact that air will not penetrate 

 it, and the young roots will form slowly and feebly. 

 When neither of these difficulties is to be feared, fall 

 planting is decidedly preferable. Spring planting should 

 be done at the earliest moment the condition of the ground 

 will admit; which is, when dry enough to crumble into 

 fine particles when turned over with the spade. 



7th. Distance to Plant. We are all in the habit of plant- 

 ing quite too closely in the nursery ; the consequence is 

 that the trees are not well proportioned. Frequently, the 

 standards are as large at six feet from the ground, as at 

 the collar ; weak, and top-heavy, so that sticks have to be 

 used to support them, even when four years old. Pyram- 

 idal trees are out of the question where such close plant- 

 ing is practised the growth is always forced to the top. 

 Nature gives us numerous and striking illustrations of the 

 effect of close planting. We see, in a natural group or 



