18 BOOK OF FRUITS. 



soil, so as to place the roots in a horizontal 

 direction, and all of them drawn out straight 

 like a fan, or rays verging from a centre to a 

 semicircle, and the soil thrown evenly over ; 

 the tree should not be shaken after the earth 

 is placed upon the roots, as is too generally 

 practised ; for when a tree is thus raised up, 

 the small roots or fibres will be drawn out of 

 their places, and when the stem is thrust down 

 again, the roots being too weak to force their 

 way back into the soil, will be doubled up, 

 which often causes knobs, and throws out 

 suckers ; neither will the earth require to be 

 trodden down har J, but gently ; or if it be a 

 dry or loose loamy soil, setting in puddle, 

 which is to water as you set it ; this 

 last method is undoubtedly the best, when 

 an individual has time to attend to it, it is 

 a slower process. Copious watering after a 

 tree is set, is often very prejudicial, by wash- 

 ing the soil from the roots. 



Fruit Trees should rarely be placed deeper 

 in the ground than they originally stood in the 

 Nursery. Pear trees bear their fruit on short 

 buds, or spurs of one, two, three or more years 

 growth, from the strongest branches ; and the 



