192 



CULTIVATION OF PLANTS. 



or even double that number. The trees will injure the land 

 very little, if any, either for pasturage or meadow, till they 

 themselves become productive and very trifling afterward, 

 provided the trees are not set too close. 



The rapidity of the growth of young trees when transplant- 

 ed, depends very essentially on the manner of performing that 

 operation. The greater the depth and superficial extent to 

 which the ground is loosened, round where a young plant is to 

 be set, the more rapid will be its growth. Let, for instance, a 

 young tree be set in a hole only eighteen inches diameter, and 

 a foot in depth and let another, in all respects similar, be set 

 in a space six feet wide and two feet deep, and the latter will, 

 for many succeeding years, grow with double the rapidity of 

 the former. In order, therefore, to give the young maple a 

 rapid start, so as to have them soon in a condition to afford 

 large supplies of sap, due attention must be paid to this par- 

 ticular. Let the spaces for the trees be dug a foot in depth 

 and five feet in diameter, and then spade, prong, or loosen the 

 bottom of each hole, to the depth of about a foot, before the 

 young trees are set in.* 



In addition to planting maples in grounds intended as per- 

 manent pasture or meadow land, each side of the highway 

 leading through any farm might be profitably occupied and 

 adorned with these trees, set at the distance of about every two 

 rods. Suppose, also, that the farm-house were placed in a spa- 

 cious court-yard occupying an acre in extent and this plant- 

 ed with a suitable number of this most beautiful and ornamental 

 tree, could any thing confer more of an air of pleasantness and 

 elegance to the mansion. Every farmer might, in this way, 

 stock his lands with a permanent growth that would in time 

 afford him an abundant supply of sugar plentiful additions of 

 fuel and eminently serve as an embellishment to his domain. 



There is on almost every hill farm, some place favourable to 

 the growth of a maple orchard some rocky spot, yielding but 

 little grass, and impervious to the plough. Such spots may be 

 favourably chosen for the growth of a maple orchard and 

 whether the increase be used for the manufacturing of sugar 

 and molasses, or for timber or fuel, the proprietor will find a 

 profit better than money at interest in the growth of this beau- 

 tiful tree, which will spontaneously propagate itself in various 

 positions. The second growth is very rapid, becoming of a 

 proper size, in many instances, of producing sugar in ten to 

 fifteen years; the sap of the second growth having been found 

 to yield a larger proportion of saccharine than the original forest 



* The Plough Boy, vol. i., page 379. 



