ORCHARDS. 467 



wounded parts, and more especially not to plant too deep. This 

 is the common error of inexperienced planters. As a general 

 rule, trees should be planted in the orchard with about three 

 inches of earth over the upper tier of roots, which will make 

 it about two inches deeper than it stood in the nursery. The 

 trees after being partially covered, should be well shaken, to 

 admit the finer particles of earth among the fibrous roots, and 

 be well settled by treading the earth around it. 



The tops of young trees should never be shortened, lest it 

 produce a growth of suckers. They may be thinned if found 

 too heavy. If the trees have been long out of ground, and the 

 roots have become shrivelled at the time of planting, the labour 

 of pouring a pailful of water round each tree, will be amply 

 repaid in the success it will insure in their growth. 



Cultivation of thAjjpound. The looser the ground is kept 

 for the first, and indeed for several succeeding years, the more 

 certain and more vigorous will be the growth of the orchard. 

 Every stage of cultivation is strongly marked in the luxuriance 

 and colour of the foliage of contiguous plantations. Those or- 

 chards which have been two years under cultivation, exhibit a 

 striking superiority over those which have been but one year 

 under the plough; while these in their turn surpass the fields 

 in clover or in grain, both in the quantity and size of the fruit. 

 When clover is sown in young orchards, it will be well to dig 

 the earth for about three feet, at the root of each tree. A man 

 will dig round 100 trees in a day; the trifling loss of grass and 

 labour will be fully remunerated by the improved vigour of the 

 tree. When the ground can be spared from cropping, four or 

 five furrows on each side of a row will be found a most eligible 

 mode of promoting the growth of a young orchard. 



All fallow crops are most favourable to the growth of or- 

 chards, at every early stage of their cultivation. Indian corn, 

 potatoes, and vines, are preferable to oats or barley; and these 

 again are more favourable than winter grain. Buckwheat is 

 among the most beneficial crops for the promotion of the au- 

 tumnal growth of trees. Clover is by many farmers believed 

 to be injurious to young trees. Its tendency to check the 

 growth of trees, will be found to be in proportion to the air 

 and moisture, which its greater or less vigorous growth may 

 keep from the roots. Light and heat appear to be as necessary 

 to the roots, as to the branches of trees. Clover, while it oc- 

 cupies the ground, must prevent cultivation, and may so far be 

 found pernicious, but probably not in a greater degree, than 

 any other luxuriant and deeply rooted grass, absorbing the 

 moisture, and exhausting the strength of the soil, which covers 

 the roots of small trees. 



