166 



SILK MAN UAL, AND 



principles, and are in perfect accordance with my 

 method of practice. 



And now, Mr Editor, if you or any one of your 

 subscribers will offer any good reason in favor of 

 mutilating either tap roots of trees or {)lants, tops 

 of Indian Corn, or pigs (or any other animal's) 

 tails, I for one should like very nujch to see them. 

 Apple trees I prefer setting in rows 40 feet 

 apart each way. The pear, peach, plutn and 

 cherry, 20 feet or less will answer. The jieach 

 will do well, if the nature of the soil will answer, 

 between apple trees, as thoy are short-lived, and 

 will be out of the way before the apple trees 

 require the whole of the ground. In digging 

 the boles after the ground is staked out, I dig 

 around the stake considei'able larger iii circum- 

 ference than the roots extend, (taking care not to 

 move the stake,) and as deep as the ground has 

 been ploughed, and no deeper upon any account 

 whatever, — unless the subsoil or pan is clay or 

 gravel, and very hard and compact ; in which 

 case 1 loosen the bottom of the hole with a pick 

 or bar, in order to give the tap root a chance to 

 go down. 



To dig holes 2 or 3 feet in depth, and fill up 

 with manure, top soil, or small stones, as many 

 are in the habit of doing, and which I have done 

 myself, is in njy opinion a very bad practice, and 

 has a bad effect. Trees in general have three 

 distinct classes of roots, at least they seem calcu- 

 lated to answer three dilfereut purposes. The 

 first tier or class naturally run horizontally with 

 the surface, or nearly so, and are covered with 

 numerous small fibres or feeders, which lead to 

 the surface in search of food. The second tier 

 or class run down nearly on an angle of 45° from 

 the body, and seem calculated for the purpose of 

 stays to support the trees; they contain but few 

 if any fibres ; they twist about and operate like 

 an auger jn penetrating the land far; they tiatu- 

 'i"&liy run crooked for the better purpose of holding ; 

 ^Q ends are generally clumped or hluut, and in 

 old trees begin to decay with the limbs. The 

 third tier or tap roots, in most trees, run down 

 perpendicularly with the body of the trees, and 

 seem calculated for a double purpose, that of a 

 stey to hold down with, and likewise to draw, 

 moisture from the bosom of the earth ; (then why 

 cut it off?) By digging deep holes, and filling up 

 with manure or other loose materials, the tree can 

 not have that support that it naturally requires. 

 Likewise it serves to draw those roots, which 

 jinturally run horizontally down, among the other 

 £lass or tier of roots, after which they have to find 

 their way out of the bole the best way they can, 

 as they are naturally great travellers, and will not 

 bear confinement, which fact I ascertained by 

 removing about 100 trees that I lost by the frost 

 in ISS^. ThSy h&ti bVen eetat^oUi 5 ytean^, nfe^Ty 



one half of them over holes that ha 1 been filled 

 up with rich earth, sods, Sec; those that were 

 set on the hard pan after the second or third year, 

 grew faster, and did better than those set over 

 holes ; and when I came to remove the dead 

 ones, i found the roots to have taken their natural 

 direction, and had extended much fiu'ther than 

 those that were set over large deep holes. 



I prefer digging the beds or holes several days 

 before trans|)!aiiting, taking care to heap the dirt 

 in order to have it dry. I like to have the earth 

 moist, but not wet; if it is too moist it will not 

 pack well around the root's. Before I commence 

 setting, 1 draw in about two inches or more, (which 

 depends upon the depth of tiie hole,) of loose fine 

 soil, and spread it even on the bottotn ; I then 

 pull up the stake, and if the tap root is large, [ 

 make the hole larger to receive it. I then press 

 the tree down so that the brace roots may rest 

 solid on the bottom, then 1 have a boy or man to 

 steady the body of the tree, and another to sift 

 the fine dirt in upon the roots, with a corn riddle 

 or from a broad shovel ; while I with my fingers 

 jxack the dirt as c=ose and as tight around the 

 roots as I possibly can ; taking care to give^each 

 and ev^ery tier of roots their natural direction. I 

 never lift the tree up and down, as many are in 

 the hitbit of doing, or press the earth down with 

 my foot, until the hole is tilled in even with the 

 surface of the ground. After which I tread down 

 so as to leave it a little concave. If ft tree ha* 

 good roots, and the earth is wfill packed around 

 it at the time of planting it will not require 

 Slaking, ft is said by some, that it is ivecessai-y 

 to mark the tree before starting, so as to set the 

 same side to the south that it grew in thennrsery^ 

 I have tried the experiment frequently, but could 

 never discover that it made any diftisrence. It is 

 likewise said that trees make more wood tli& 

 south than the north side; possibly they do in- 

 Greenland, but in the latitude of Boston, 1 (loubt 

 very mucli whether th.e sim has that eft'ect. At 

 the lime I lost my trees in 1332, part of liicm I 

 sawed off l)elow where they were killed, in order 

 to engraft ; and 1 as often found the heart of the 

 tree to be as near the soutii as the nonh side. 

 The sap has regular channels to run in,*uid there 

 is probably as many, or they are as large upon one 

 side as the other. After an orchard is set, I think 

 it rs Ijcst to keep the land in tillage for several 

 years, or until the ground is well filled with man- 

 ure, and the roots well extended; and whenever, 

 it is seeded down to grass I should sow nothing 

 but clover, and plough it as often as every thu'd 

 year. Daniel Chandle.!?. 



Jf'arm School Island, > ' 

 fcb. 2'i, 1836. 5 



Gauze is supposed to have originate'd in Gazss, 

 iti Parrstinb x hin'c'e itfe HHmte 



