194 PERMANENT PLANTATIONS. 



same as recommended for nursery culture. Every third 

 or fourth year, or when their growth indicates the need 

 of it, the trees should receive a dressing of well-decom- 

 posed manure or compost, spread on the surface of the 

 ground, over the roots, or partially worked in with a fork. 

 This should always be done in the fall. Dwarf apples 

 and pears require more frequent and liberal manuring 

 than standards, because their roots occupy a limited 

 space ; their heads are large compared with the roots, 

 and they bear exhausting crops. Whoever has a large 

 plantation of these trees should be well provided with 

 heaps of compost, a year old, and give each tree a peck 

 to half a bushel every year before the setting in of win- 

 ter. This will maintain their vigor, and insure large 

 and regular crops of fine fruit.. Directions for pruning 

 and forming the heads of standard trees will be treated 

 of under the general head of pruning. A good way of 

 renewing the soil where manure cannot be had is to sow 

 peas, and when they are grown just to blossom, plow 

 them under. 



There are those who advocate seeding orchards with 

 some of the finer grasses, such as are used for lawns, and 

 keeping it cut short. The advantage claimed is, that it 

 protects the roots from excessive heat in the summer. I 

 think this may answer tolerably well for the apple, but 

 for all others, and even for that, I should prefer a mulch- 

 ing of straw, hay, or some sort of litter, during the great- 

 est heat of summer. At the North we do not even need 

 this. 



In some parts of the West and South, where the pear 

 suffers from leaf blight, mulching during the warm sea- 

 son is a necessity, and will, I am sure, prove far more 

 beneficial than grass, no matter how short it may be kept. 



