THE GENESEE FARMER. 



347 





foifitiiltiiral ge|)ciituciit. 



PREPARE FOR PLANTING NEXT SPPJNG. 



Much of the success iu planting fruit trees depends 

 on the previous preparation of the soil. Those in- 

 tending to plant next spring should prepare the soil, 

 —if they have not done so already — the present month. 



The first thing to be attended to is to ascertain if 

 the site selected needs underdraining. Dig a few 

 holes, here and there, three or four feet deep, and if 

 water flows in and remains there, underdraining is ab- 

 solutely essential to the success of an orchard on such 

 soil. The drain should be at least three feet deep, 

 and if there is fall enough four or five feet deep 

 would be all the better. The deeper the drains, the 

 fewer will be needed, and in this country where tiles 

 and other draining materials are so expensive it is 

 the greatest folly to make shallow drains, even were 

 they as good as the deeper ones, which is very far 

 from being the case, especially for garden vegetables 

 and fruit trees. Trenching or subsoiling is the next 

 process to be attended to. The former is the most 

 beneficial, but is too expensive to be resorted to on 

 a large scale. Subsoiling can be performed at little 

 cost compared with its advantages. Underdraining 

 and subsoiling are the grand means of increasing the 

 temperature of the soil, as well as equalizing it in 

 this respect — they also supply moisture and air — the 

 latter so important to the healthy action of the roots 

 of plants. The air admitted by the drains and por- 

 ous earth carries with it, during summer, heat from 

 the sun, which is daily accumulating and retained for 

 a length of time, the soil being a bad conductor of 

 caloric. The old idea of Jethro Tuu. has been re- 

 cently revived in England that if the soil was sufiici- 

 ently pulverized as deep as the roots of plants de- 

 scend the soil would furnish sufficient " pasture"' with- 

 out the application of manure. This is not always 

 true, but the.e can be no doubt that under such cir- 

 cumstances the quantity of manure required is consid- 

 derably lessened. 



It is not desirable to bring too much of the raw 

 subsoil to the surface. On this account subsoiling — 

 which merely breaks up the subsoil without bringing 

 it to the surface — is better than deep plowing. In 

 trenching, too, it is better not to bring the lower spit 

 to the surface, but simply to break it up, and if some 

 fresh manure could be worked in with it so much the 

 better. For this purpose, broad-pronged forks are 

 preferable to spades, and are generally used in England. 



Many persons in planting trees put manure imme- 

 diately below the roots. This is a bad practice. 

 Baw manure often proves very injurious to the 



young fibrous roots. It is better to make the whole 

 surface soil moderately rich by plowing in a little 

 well-rotted manure and thoroughly incorporating it 

 with the soil. 'Iliis should be dune the fall previous 

 to planting. There is little danger of any loss of fer- 

 tilizing matter from leaching. 



Farmers and gardeners are so busy in the spring 

 as soon as the weather is fine enough to plant that it 

 is advisable that everything which will (acilitale the 

 work should be done during the more lei>ure time in 

 the autumn and winter. In the operations of under- 

 draining, trenching and manuring, it is not only con- 

 venient but decidedly best in every way to attend to 

 them at this season of the year. 



LENGTH OF PEAR ROOTS— CORRECTION. 



FRiENn Harris: — The clear, concise, and generally 

 accurate report of the Fruit Growers' Society at its 

 late session,. made in the last number of the Genesee 

 Farmer, contains one sentence which I wish to mod- 

 ify or correct, where I was not cleaily understood. 

 I am reported as remaiking in relation to the Stand- 

 ard Fear, " that the extent of the roots correspond 

 with the height, and a tree eight feet high, for in- 

 stance, has a breadth of roots of about eight feet, 

 or four feet on each side, and the trees should not be 

 cultivated so closely as much to disturb these roots." 



1 intended to have been understood as saying that 

 the roots extended on each side at least equal to the 

 height of the tree, as I had proved by the applica- 

 tion of manure at different distances; and that a tree 

 eight feet high might therefore be expected to have 

 an extension of roots as far as the outside of a circle 

 sixteen feet in diameter. Also, that allowing the 

 trees to branch near the earth, would not materially 

 prevent the proper cultivation of the trees, as most 

 of the area covered by the roots would be outside of 

 the spread of the branches. I have never felt any 

 fear that judicious and thorough cultivation would 

 cause injury by "disturbing the roots," as 1 have long 

 been satisfied that the loss from a want of proper 

 cultivation is far greater than any that the mutilation 

 by judicious culture could ever produce. 



If any one doubts the distance I have assigned for 

 the extension of roots, he may satisfy himself by al- 

 lowing a number of trees to grow up to dense grass, 

 so as to check their vigor, and then work into the 

 soil a portion of rich manure, at different distances 

 from each. The distance at which these trees will 

 be affected and stimulated to increased growth by 

 these remote beds of manure, will be surprising. 

 Peach trees are the best for this experiment, as they 

 are more promptly and completely checked by seed- 

 ing to grass, and more quickly started by manure. 



It vv'ill be understood that these remarks do not 

 apply to pears on quince, the roots of which are 

 much shorter. 



May I ask the favor of the insertion of this cor- 

 rection in the next Genesee Farmer? I should deem 

 it a matter of less consequence, were it not that a 

 great deal of false practice results from an ignorance 

 of the length of roots, — often witnessed in the appli- 

 cation of manures and mulching in a small circle 

 about the foot of the trunk, where these applications 

 can no more reach and benefit the great network of 

 fibres, than cold water poured into a man's boota 

 could operate in qiienching his thirst. 



Union Springs, JV. Y. J. J. Thomas. ^ 



