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those who plant out their trees in impoverished soil, or mere satid or 

 gravel, without giving them a jot of other nourishment, as though 

 thej could live and grow without any rich, good soil, any more than 

 oats or wheat can. No man of common sense, one would think, 

 could expect to grow good, fine, juicy apples out of mere gravel- 

 stones. There are others, who set out orchards in a green sivard, 

 and this, we think, is the most common of all blunders in orcharding. 

 They thus allow the sod to grow tight up about their very stems — 

 they never come to have trunks — and then complain " that the soil 

 in their part of the country is n't at all suited to fruit trees." Why, 

 what would they think of a man who should plant a corn-field in the 

 grass? How much of the sun, and air, and rain ; how much nutri- 

 ment from the earth, that is acted on and fertilized by the sun, and 

 air, and rain, would the roots of the corn or the trees get ? 



Thirdly. — The trees must not only be fed, but every tree must 

 have its appropriate nourishment. Here the law of specifics, which 

 is just beginning to receive the attention of scientific cultivators, 

 comes in play. Thus, it is found that one kind of nourishment con- 

 duces to the growth of foliage and wood, another tends to fruit ; and 

 while one kind of plant or tree requires one peculiar element for its 

 sustenance, another demands a far different element. For example : 

 lime is a great absorbent of acids, and thus materially assists in the 

 elaboration of the juices of fruits ; this is particularly observable in 

 the apple tree, the bark of which is half made up of the lime which 

 it has thus thrown out of its circulation as useless, after it has em- 

 ])loyeil it in its vegetable economy. To all trees, doubtless, a 

 vegetable substratum of soil is necessary, composed of decayed 

 wood, grasses, leaves, — like pond mud, peat earth, heath moulds; 

 but with this alone, without ammonia, or the sulphates and phosphates, 

 or lime, to absorb and retain these, the fruit may be large and per- 

 haps fair, but it will often be rough, coarse, and astringent on the one 

 hand, or flat and tasteless on the other. A pear or apple in cold, 

 clay soil, for example, is found to be a very different thing from 

 what it is in a warm, loam, or sandy land. And, although the 

 science of speficics is now in its infancy, and it may be difiicult for 

 some accomplished cultivators even to decide in regard to the best 

 soil and culture for various and diflerent plants and trees, yet it will, 

 we think, be safe to say — 1st. That ivood ashes, containing, as they 

 do, all the elements necessary to their growth, save carbon, (that is 

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