CHAPTER VI. 



SOIL, MANURES, SITUATION, AND ENCLOSURES. 



THE SOIL for fruit trees, as well as for farm crops, should 

 be of good quality. Whatever will produce a vigorous 

 growth of corn and potatoes, will in general be the best for 

 fruit trees. Sterile soil is unfavorable for both ; but doubly 

 so for the latter, for while it only lessens in quantity the 

 growth of farm crops, it lessens the quantity and greatly in- 

 jures the quality of fruit. 



Good soils vary in many particulars ; but as a general 

 rule, one which is dry, firm, mellow, and fertile, is well 

 suited to the cultivation of fruit trees. It should be deep, 

 to allow the extension of the roots ; dry, or else well drain- 

 ed, to prevent injury from stagnant water below the surface; 

 firm, and not peaty or spongy, to preclude disaster from 

 frost. 



Very few soils exist in this country, which would not be 

 much benefitted, for all decidedly hardy kinds, as the apple 

 and pear, by good manuring. Shallow soils should be 

 loosened deeply by heavy furrows and manure ; or if the 

 whole surface cannot be thus treated, a strip of ground eight 

 feet wide, where the row of trees is to stand, should be ren- 

 dered in this way deep and fertile for their growth. The 

 manure should be very thoroughly intermixed with the soil 

 by repeated harrowings. An admirable method of deepen- 

 ing soils for the free admission of the fine fibrous roots, is 

 first, to loosen it as deeply as practicable with the subsoil 

 plow ; and then to trench-plow this deeply loosened bed for 

 the intermixture of manure. The previous subsoiling ad- 

 mits the trench-plow to a greater depth than could be at- 

 tained without its aid. The only trees which will not bear 

 a high fertility, are those brought originally from warmer 

 countries, and liable to suffer from the frost of winter ; as 



