TRANSPLANTING. 73 



In setting out large orchards, if the whole field cannot be 

 deepened, a strip of land ten feet wide extending across 

 the orchard, may be treated in the same way, in the centre 

 of which each row is to be set ; and the intermediate 

 spaces, constituting two-thirds or more of the whole, may 

 be prepared afterwards, by the time the roots have passed 

 the boundaries of the first. 



Now, when it is recollected that a good orchard is worth 

 annually a hundred dollars per acre, and that this thorough 

 preparation will bring trees into plentiful bearing, in con- 

 nexion with good subsequent culture, in one third of the 

 time required where trees are crowded into small holes in 

 hard ground, it must be perfectly plain to every one that the 

 former is by far the cheaper treatment. 



Where, from any unavoidable cause, trench-plowing can- 

 not be accomplished, the holes should be seven or eight feet 

 in diameter, and from one and a half to two feet deep. The 

 earth should be mixed with a liberal allowance of well-rotted 

 manure, or still better with a compost made and worked 

 over some weeks previously, consisting of two or three 

 parts of muck or peat, one of barn manure, and a fifth part 

 of leached ashes. This is indeed an excellent manure for 

 fruit trees in all cases with ordinary soils. If the subsoil 

 is sterile, it should be scattered back out of the way. 



In rare cases, where rotted manure or compost is not at 

 hand, and it becomes necessary to use fresh manure, it 

 must be thoroughly incorporated with an iron rake into the 

 soil, and this mixture not placed in contact with the roots 

 but at such a distance that they may not reach it till after 

 some months of growth, when it will have become well 

 combined with the soil. One quarter manure will be an 

 abundant proportion in any case. 



Preparing the roots. Before a tree is set in the earth, 

 ail the bruised or wounded parts, where cut with the spade, 

 should be pared off smoothly, to prevent decay, and to 

 enable them to heal over by granulations during the 

 growth of the tree. Then dip them in a bed of mud, 

 which will coat every part over evenly, and leave no por- 

 tion in contact with air, which accidentally might not be 

 reached by the earth in filling the hole. The bed of mud 



