554 General Notices. 



tion is at all damp, lliat this mode of planting encourages a degree of moist- 

 ture about the roots, as the water from the original and undisturbed soil 

 collects in that which is more porous, which superabundance of moisture 

 tends to lay the germ of future disease and unproductiveness. When the 

 natural soil is not considered suitable to plant young trees in, and the ex- 

 pense of a new border not gone to, the requisite soil ought to be trenched 

 in, and well mixed with the natural soil to the depth of two feet or two and 

 a half. As to the first planting, the roots outjht to be regularly laid out, 

 care being taken not to plant them too deep. Some cultivators recommend 

 planting on the surface, which may have its advantages ; but, it by no 

 means obviates the downward tendency of the roots. But the object of the 

 present paper being to point out the advantages of regulating the growth of 

 trees by a system of lifting, it is unnecessary to dwell on the different ways 

 of planting. 



Of late years it has become evident, that the old mechanical modes of 

 managing fruit trees, are attended with so many serious disadvantages, that 

 more natural ones are beginning to be appreciated. The majority of garden- 

 ers now endeavor to understand the reason of every practice, and every 

 effect upon scientific principles, so that, at present the march of gardening 

 knowledge is very rapid, and the old and fondly cherished opinions of 

 former days are being fast cast aside ; and among these are the old sys- 

 tems of pruning and training fruit trees, which, in general, is only a system 

 of unnatural malformation, by which all the laws of the vegetable system 

 are greatly embarrassed, circumscribed limits being set to the branches, 

 whilst the roots are allowed to roam at liberty, untrained and unnoticed. 

 The limits of the branches being obtained by a course of pruning, that is, 

 not according to the lavrs of vegetable physiology, or the dictates of reason, 

 if tlie operator was only to employ that important key to the proper appli- 

 cation of the principles of horticulture, the thought must at once strike him, 

 if I bestow such trouble on the branches of my trees, I must likewise turn 

 my attention to the roots, there being an inseparable connection between 

 their actions in their natural and unrestricted state ; the absorbing power 

 of the roots being in proportion to the decomposing power of the leaves ; 

 but, by the cutting system, the superficial extent of the roots is greatly 

 increased above the relative proportion which they ought to bear to the 

 branches, and as soon as the natural habits are encroached upon, the grand 

 and complicated laws upon which the vegetable system works, are de- 

 ranged ; and how can it, then, be expected that nature's laws will be fol- 

 lowed in the production of fruit. Imitating nature is the principal point on 

 which the gardener's success depends. 



Some suppose that by pruning the branches, they lessen the power of 

 the root, but winter pruning has not the least tendency to it, from the rule 

 that the sap vessels are filling all the winter by the attraction of the buds, 

 so when the tree is pruned, all its remaining parts are well stored with sap, 

 to supply the first demands of the few buds retained, and as soon as a suf- 

 ficient supply of light and heat is produced, the growth starts with rapid 

 vigor, whereby the roots are again set in motion to supply a gross and unpro- 



