FARMS. 91 



justify the space tlicy here occupy. After objectiug to the 

 cultivation of any other crop among fruit trees, he remarks: — 

 " Equally injurious, in my own opinion, is the habit of deep 

 digging or ploughing among fruit trees, thereby cutting off the 

 roots, and destroying tlie fibrous feeders, whicli frequently 

 extend beyond the sweep of Ihe branches. However necessary 

 the practice may be of cutting oif roots in old orchards, in the 

 process of renovation, it should be carefully avoided in grounds 

 properly prepared, and where the trees are in a healthy or 

 bearing condition. From experiment and observation, 1 am 

 persuaded that working the soil among fruit trees, to the depth 

 of more than three or four inches, should be carefully avoided. 

 The surface should only be worked with a hoe, or scarifier, for 

 the purpose of stirring the soil, and keeping out the weeds. Tiius 

 we avail ourselves of the advantages of what, in farming, is called 

 flat-culture, at present so popular. For the same reason manure 

 should not be dug in to any considerable depth, and some of our 

 wisest cultivators now recommend its application on the surface. 

 So favorably impressed with this practice is the Massachusetts 

 Board of Agriculture, that it has ordered a series of experi- 

 ments with cereal grains and other products in the application 

 of manures on the surface as compared- with specified depths 

 beneath it. The practice of surface manuring is no novelty of 

 our day. An eminent cultivator of fruits, nearly two hundred 

 years ago, said, ' Manures should be applied to fruit trees in 

 the autumn upon the surface, that the rains, snow, and frosts 

 may convey the elements of fertility to the roots ; ' and ' that, 

 by this method, one load will do more good than two used in 

 the common way of trenching in to the depth of one foot.' 

 Other distinguished cultivators and scientific gentlemen recom- 

 mend the same practice. Hence we are of opinion that our 

 orchards and gardens should be manured in the autumn, and 

 on the surface, so that the manures may be thoroughly decom- 

 posed, made soluble during tlie fall and winter, and suitable 

 for the nourishment of the tree early in the spring. In the 

 history of this art, as of most others, it is wonderful how 

 human opinions change. What were once considered as funda- 

 mental, are now rejected as unphilosophical or injurious, and 

 those once rejected are now adopted as wise maxims. The 

 doctrine has prevailed, from the time of Columella and Yarro, 



