316 THE NEW GARDENING 



When fruit trees are being planted in poor shallow 

 soil, not only may thirty tons of yard manure per acre 

 be applied, but every two or three years liberal surface 

 dressings of rich yard manure may be made with ad- 

 vantage. 



The question of manure in planting fruit trees resolves 

 itself therefore into a consideration of the character and 

 quality of the soil. 



The connoisseur will not be satisfied to start and end 

 the feeding question with the preparation of the ground 

 at planting time. He will muse somewhat in this wise : 

 The trees are now young and lusty. They have no burden 

 of fruit to tax their strength. A few years hence the 

 vigour of youth will have passed, and at the same time 

 they will have the burden of bearing on them. At which 

 stage do they require the most feeding ? 



An eminently sensible question, to which there is only 

 one answer. It is when fruit trees have got beyond the 

 first flush of growth, when they have undergone the stress 

 of cropping several times, and when their roots have 

 taken a good deal of the nutriment out of the soil, that 

 they need the most feeding. 



Scientific manuring is a natural corollary of scientific 

 priming. 



In using the word scientific, it may be well to explain 

 at once that I do not mean the use of artificial manures 

 alone. Any system is scientific that gives the right 

 food at the right times. It might be scientific manuring 

 to give a top-dressing of yard dung and nothing else. 

 I would, however, say that the grower who is bent upon 

 doing Bear-quicks well, will find concentrated feeding 

 helpful. Supposing a number of young fruit trees to have 

 set a heavy crop of fruit it would be scientific to proceed 

 as follows : 



