71 



If the tree languishes, when it commences 

 growing, cover the ground in a circle of three 

 or four feet in diameter around it, with coarse 

 straw or litter from the barn-yard, laying on 

 sods or stones to keep this from being blown 

 away. This process is called Mulching. It 

 keeps the soil moist, and in that state of equa- 

 ble temperature most favorable to the growth 

 of young roots. Watering on the surface, 

 without mulching, is almost always injurious. 

 Feeble trees may also be benefitted, by shading 

 them with pine boughs, &c. If, with all this 

 care, the tree continues still feeble, head back 

 its top yet more severely, and water the leaves 

 and twigs, every evening, with a water-pot. 



If, having followed all the above directions, 

 the planter still finds his tree standing season 

 after season, neither growing nor fruiting, but 

 only existing, let him consult his true interest, 

 by transferring it to the wood-pile. Why 

 cumbereth it the ground? 



Nursery trees, five to eight or ten feet high, 

 are greatly improved by being taken up and 

 re-set in rows again. Take them up, shape 

 the roots, and head in and form the tops. If 

 this work be properly done, the value of the 

 trees will double in two years. 



