14 BOOK OF FRUITS. 



of! and decay." Most trees will thrive if they 

 have two feet in depth of good earth, espe- 

 cially when their roots spread near the sur- 

 face ; for whether that which supplies food for 

 the Tree be a black, yellow or brown loam, it 

 can only be furnished within a certain depth 

 from the surface, or within the influence of 

 the sun and air. Large roots, running deep 

 and spreading wide, may be necessary to pro- 

 duce large Timber Trees, but not Fruit Trees, 

 for these are more prolific When their roots are 

 much divided or fibrous, and kept near the 

 surface of the soil. With regard to the man- 

 ure for Fruit Trees, Bradley, Hitt and Miller, 

 "consider the food of plants to be salts, which 

 every species of earth contains within itself, 

 and that according to the proportion of salts 

 contained in each kind of soil or manure, will 

 its prolificacy be." We are of opinion from 

 the use which we have made of the sea marl 

 or muscle bed, that it is on the whole the best 

 manure, either for top dressing or shallow 

 ploughing, of any substance in use among us, 

 particularly when applied to light soils. It is 

 said by some, that salt is valuable only as a 

 chemical agent, by destroying and hastening 



