Oil Orchards. 225 



the 24th of October, from being under cultivation have 

 generally grown finely, and at present exhibit a favoura^ 

 ble appearance, few of them having perished, and 

 those few principally from the field mice ; but the dif= 

 ference between the mud and dung is here also very per^ 

 eeptible. 



From the result of the foregoing experiments I infer, 

 that trees planted without manure in the holes, and tli^ 

 roots covered with the surface earth with an external 

 covering of mellow mud or rich mould, is the best 

 mode for the first year. That if the ground is poor, 

 stable manure is the least proper kind to be used, being 

 from its nature least able to resist the destructive eft'ects 

 of our summer droughts, and affording a shelter to ver~ 

 min equally pernicious in the winter, particularly in 

 light soils ; that rich earth or river and meadow mud 

 ameliorated by frost or putrefaction, either in its simple 

 state, or mixed with ashes, lime or perfectly rotten 

 dung, is of all others, after the first year, the best dres- 

 sing, to be spread on the surface and ploughed in. — ^ 

 That cultivation is essential to the growth of orchards^ 

 which thrive in proportion to the degree of it which 

 they receive. 



I have, under a full conviction of the correctness of 

 these opinions, this fall planted another orchard of four 

 hundred and eighty trees, one half of European and the 

 other half of American kinds, in a light, sandy soil, with 

 two cart loads of meadow mud, spread in a circle of about 

 10 feet diameter round each tree on the surface of the earth » 

 This ground I mean to cultivate in corn and other faL 

 low crops for two years, when I hope the trees will be 

 sufficiently established to admit of winter grain and q\o- 



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