ON ROTATION OF CROPS. 183 



rounded the tree, and which, in return, supply the soil 

 with exudations adapted to forest trees : these ameliora- 

 tions will enable a second tree to live and grow upon the 

 same spot as its progenitor, though certainly not with the 

 same vigor as if it were of a different family. 



Caroline. In replacing a tree in an avenue we are not 

 at liberty to choose its species ; but in our gardens it is 

 surely wrong to replace an old fruit-tree by another of 

 the same species. 



Mrs. B. This is not so easily obviated as you imagine ; 

 for it is not sufficient to change the species : you must 

 change the family ; and almost all our fruit trees are of the 

 same family. To remedy this inconvenience, the gardener 

 must supply the young tree with fresh soil, which in a 

 great measure answers the same purpose. This new 

 earth should, if possible, be brought from the neighborhood 

 of forest-trees, which are of another family. Manure may 

 at the same time be introduced. Nursery gardeners alter- 

 nate plantations of fruit and of forest-trees. 



Caroline. When a wood is cut down another springs 

 up of the same trees, shooting up from the old roots, or 

 germinating from the seeds naturally sown. Yet how can 

 these young plants find sustenance in a soil both exhausted 

 and vitiated by the parent-trees ? 



Mrs. B. You assume as a fact what is only a natural 

 inference. If, when a natural forest be cut down, a second 

 springs up, it will consist of trees of another family ; a 

 forest of oaks, for instance, may be succeeded by one of 

 aspen, which is of a different family, or the oaks may be 

 replaced by some species of fruit-trees. 



Caroline. I am not talking of replanting the forest, 

 but of that which would naturally spring up were the first 

 cut down. Now we know that aspen and fruit-trees will 

 not germinate from acorns. 



Mrs. B. It is the acorns which will not germinate in 

 a soil so ill prepared for them ; whilst the seed of the aspen, 

 or kernels of fruit-trees, which may chance to be here and 



1004. Will it grow with the same vigor, as if it were of a different 

 family 1 ? 1005. What comparison is made by Caroline between re- 

 placing trees in an avenue and a garden'? 1006. How does Mrs. B. 

 reply to her! 1007. What does she say of supplying it with new earth? 

 1008. What inquiry does Caroline make respecting a wood that is cut 

 down 1 ? 1009. How does Mrs. B. reply to her 1 ? 1010. What is 

 laid of the germination of the acorn and the seed of the as pen 1 



