OF FRUIT TREES. 201 



grow; cut none away, supposing six or more should 

 come up from the old stump ; the young scions will 

 grow up to bearing trees on account of the roots 

 being strong. Let no kind of beasts into peach 

 orchards, hogs exceptcd, for fear of wounding the 

 trees; as the least wound will greatly injure the 

 tree, by draining away that substance which is the 

 life thereof; although the tree may live many 

 years, the produce is not so great, neither is the 

 fruit so good. After the old stock is cut away, the 

 third year after transplanting, the sprouts or scions 

 will grow up all round the old stump, from four to 

 six in number: no more will come to maturity than 

 the old stump can support and nourish; the re- 

 mainder will die before ever they bear fruit. 

 These may be cut away, taking care not to wound 

 any part of any stock, or the bark. The sprouts 

 growing all round the old sturnp, when loaded with 

 fruit, will bend, and rest on the ground in every 

 direction, without injuring any of them, for many 

 years, all of them being rooted in the ground as 

 though they had been planted. The stocks will 

 remain tough, and the bark smooth, for twenty 

 years and upwards ; if any of the sprouts or trees 

 from the old stump should happen to split off or 

 die, cut the or a way ; they will be supplied from the 

 ground by young trees, so that you will have trees 

 from the same stump for one hundred years, as I 

 believe. I now have trees thirty-six, twenty, ten, 

 five, and down to one year old, all from the same 

 stump. The young trees coming up, after any of 

 the old trees split oif or die, and are cut away, will 

 bear fruit the second year; but this fruit will not 

 ripen so easily as the fruit on the old trees from 

 the same stem. Three years after the trees are 

 cut off by the ground, they will be sufficiently large 

 and bushy to shade the ground, so as to prevent 

 grass of any kind from matting or binding the sur- 

 face, so as to injure the trees ; therefore, plough- 

 26 



