38 FRUIT-GARDENING. 



smoking should be effected first on one side of the plantation, 

 and afterwards on the other, or heaps may be prepared in 

 different parts of the orchard, and fire applied according as the 

 wind may serve to carry the smoke where it is most necessary. 

 I know a gardener in the neighborhood of New York who 

 saved his Plums and Nectarines by burning salt hay, after hav- 

 ing been used as a covering for his Spinach ; and I have no 

 hesitation in recommending it as an excellent remedy for pro- 

 tecting fruit-trees from insects, especially if some coarse tobacco 

 could be procured to add to it. The damper the materials are, 

 in moderation, the more smoke they will create ; and if a little 

 tar, pitch, sulphur, or other pernicious combustible be sprinkled 

 among them, it will be beneficial. 



Now I would ask How is it that ashes are not as valuable to 

 the farmers here as they are in Europe ? The extreme heat of 

 the summer must certainly engender insects in equal, if not 

 greater proportions ; and as respects manure, it must be scarcer 

 in some parts of this extensive country than it is in the densely 

 peopled countries of Europe. Perhaps some may answer, that 

 ashes are already used by our cultivators to a considerable 

 extent ; but I would remind such, that from the circumstance of 

 their being mixed up with other manures, and exposed to all 

 sorts of weather (as in our city), they lose their virtue, so that 

 a load may not be worth more than a bushel would be, if kept 

 dry and clean. 



THE SITUATION OF AN ORCHARD AND THE SOIL. 



The situation of an Orchard or Fruit-Garden should be one 

 that has the advantage of a free circulation of air, and is ex- 

 posed to the south, with a slight inclination to the east and 

 south-west. When the situation is low and close, the trees are 

 very liable to become mossy, which always injures them, by 



