354 TREES FROM SEED THE SADDLE GRAFT. 



Let the space in which every tree is designed to 

 stand in the orchard (each tree being at least twenty- 

 five feet distant from the other) be well dug about 

 one foot deep, and in a circle of about eight or ten 

 feet in diameter. Then let a proper quantity of 

 apple-seed, obtained from the pressed apples of the 

 cider-house, be strewn over each circle, and let the 

 earth be raked over the seed so as to cover it pro- 

 perly. This process may be effected any time be- 

 tween the end of October and March. November 

 is perhaps the best time. During the next year a 

 great variety of plants will come up in each circle ; 

 as the summer proceeds, let the weak and small 

 plants be pulled up, so as to make room for the 

 strong and vigorous ones. The next year let them 

 be further reduced, so that if there be in each circle 

 six, or at most ten vigorous plants, there will be 

 more than enough. The third or fourth year, they 

 may be all grafted with such fruit as you may choose ; 

 and in the course of a year or two, the strongest 

 and best graft in each of the circles being suffered 

 to remain, the rest may be either thrown away or 

 removed to other plantations ; and thus a valuable 

 orchard may be reared more early, by many years, 

 than by the plans now adopted ; for do what we will, 

 transplantation in general retards the growth of 

 trees, two or three, and sometimes many years. The 

 best kind of graft for the young plant, is, beyond a 

 doubt, the saddle graft, the operation for which 

 every gardener knows how to perform. It is scarcely 

 necessary to mention, that the circles must be, of 

 course, well fenced from the depredations of cattle, 



