92 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



cold on the north side, may be safe on the south side. For 

 your encouragement, however, it should be remembered that 

 the best exposure and the best soil are not essential to suc- 

 cess, provided you bestow the appropriate culture. 



3. Prepare your ground carefully. Fruit trees delight in 

 a deep soil, made mellow, in which the roots can move freely 

 in search of pasture. The soil should be prepared as carefully 

 by the plough for a crop of trees, as for a crop of wheat. If 

 it is your purpose to plant an orchard of apple trees, plough 

 your land deep, according to the nature of the soil. Apply 

 manure generously. Raise a crop of corn or potatoes on green 

 sward. The next season manure again, if necessary, and sow 

 the ground with oats. Just after your oats are sowed, plant 

 your trees in the soil thus rendered mellow and enriched by 

 manure, in which the roots can move freely and find nourish- 

 ment. The oats will protect the trees against the great heat 

 of the sun, and the roots dying will afibrd them nourishment. 

 The soil formed of turf is appropriate to the nourishment of 

 the roots of the trees. 



4. Plant your trees carefully. In taking them up, see to it, 

 that the spade does its office by digging a circular trench around 

 each tree, near the end of the roots, which radiate from the 

 trunk or stem. Dig under the ends of the roots towards the 

 trunk or body, without wounding them. Raise each successive- 

 ly, commencing at the extremity, and the whole gently without 

 tearing them. Keep the roots moist until they are transferred 

 to their new habitation. Dig the hole so large that the roots 

 will not be cramped. If there is any difference between the 

 surface soil and that at the bottom of the hole, let the two be 

 kept separate. Lay the surface soil next to the roots and the 

 soil taken from the bottom, on the surface. Some cultivators 

 apply a stratum of well-rotted manure between the two kinds 

 of soil ; but not in contact with the roots. Apply water to the 

 roots after the surface soil is placed on them. The time for 

 doing this in our country and climate is generally best in the 

 spring, just after the buds have begun to swell, rather than in 

 the autumn, though some kinds of trees succeed well when 

 planted iu the latter season, if proper care be taken in trans- 

 planting them. 



