UNDER-DRAINING ORCHARDS. 235 



sioned either by too stimulating food in the soil, or by a forcing 

 heat in the climate, which excites a growth unnatural to the 

 original habit of the tree. There are also probably other yet 

 unexplained causes for it. The preventive must be determined 

 by the cause. The immediate remedy is shortening-in with a 

 knife one-quarter or one-half of the growth of each year. This 

 is absolutely necessary to the successful cultivation of the peach 

 in many situations in the United States, and, as I have shown, 

 is sometimes used as a remedy for canker in the apple-tree in 

 England.* 



Too retentive a subsoil, or a cold, sour, malarious bed for the 

 roots of an orchard, is only to be remedied by under-draining. 

 Mr. Thompson, of the London Horticultural Society, gives a 

 striking instance of the profit which may attend this operation. 



Having detailed several experiments, he remarks, that " want 

 of drainage deprives the roots of proper nourishment, subjects 

 them to a chilling temperature, and forces them to absorb a vitia- 

 ted fluid." He then describes an orchard planted, in 1828, upon 

 a retentive marly clay. He says, " the trees grew tolerably well 

 for some time ; but after seven years they began to exhibit symp- 

 toms of ill thriving, and were every year- getting worse. I saw 

 them in 1840, and instead of increasing in size they seemed to 

 be decreasing." The trees grew worse, and the following year 

 several died. It was then determined to drain the land : 3000 

 feet of draining-tile were laid, 3 feet deep, in parallel lines, 48 

 feet apart. In the spring of 1843, and in the autumn of the same 

 year, 3000 feet of drain pipes, 1J inch bore, were laid at 30 

 inches deep, so that the drains were then only 24 feet apart ; the 



* The principal enemy of the peach-tree is the borer, a worm which works under the 

 bark, near the surface of the ground. Its presence may be known by the exudation of 

 gum. Trees should be examined for it every spring and fallj and it may be easily 

 pricked out and killed with a sharp-pointed knife 



