CHAPTER VIII. 



Deep Preparation Wrong. 



AND now to the second cause of deteriorated orchards, 

 which I claim to be the deep plowing and pulverizing 

 before planting, either of the whole orchard or of sev- 

 eral feet where the tree is to stand, in the shape of large 

 holes. It is, indeed, true that such preparation is necessary 

 for long, fibrous-rooted trees, such as our nurserymen now 

 furnish by once or twice transplanting, for such trees invari- 

 ably re-establish themselves on fibrous roots from the old ones, 

 being unable to penetrate a firm surface or subsoil. More- 

 over, such a loose, well pulverized hole, or entire plant-bed, 

 will undoubtedly enable such trees to take hold and make an 

 excellent growth, and bear well for some years ; but such 

 preparation is entirely artificial, opposed to nature, and 

 infallibly lays the foundation for permature decay and death. 

 In furnishing the trees described a loose, porous seed-bed, 

 we induce, in fact compel, them to confine themselves 

 almost entirely to it. I saw a most remarkable example 

 of this several years ago, near Seguin, in this state. A most 

 painstaking fruit-grower had prepared a peach orchard after 

 this fashion, the trees being trimmed high to allow of cultiva- 

 tion, and the fourth and fifth year gathered crops of excellent 

 fruit. In the summer of the sixth a terrible rain and wind 

 storm swept over that section and laid every single one of 

 those peach trees flat on the ground, with their roots in the 

 air. I wish every fruit grower could have seen this orchard, 

 with its surface and lateral root system scarcely one foot in 

 depth, having had no hold on the subsoil, excepting through 

 its fibrous roots. Doubtless many have had such an experi- 

 ence. But suppose these trees had not fallen? Is it not a fair 

 presumption that their roots, standing for several days in 

 almost liquid mud, under a July sun, would have been injured ? 



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