APPLE TRfiE. , 195 



strike ; and, if the roots should get dry, thev ought to 

 be soaked in rain or pond water, for half a day before 

 the tree be planted. If the head of the tree is large in 

 proportion to the root, it must be thinned a little to 

 prevent it from being swayed about by the wind. (But 

 the tops of the young trees must not be shortened, lest 

 they produce a growth of suckers.) Even when prun- 

 ed, it will be exposed to be loosened by this cause, and 

 must be kept steady by a stake ; but it must not be 

 fastened to a stake, until rain has come to settle the 

 ground ; for, such fastening would prevent it from sink- 

 ing with tiie earth ; the earth would sink from it, and 

 leave cavities about the roots. Care must be taken to 

 prevent the tree from being rubbed by the stake. It is 

 Tery useful to lay round the trees, a compost made of 

 river-mud, wood ashes, and a small portion of lime, at 

 the rate of about a commoQ wagon load for every tea 

 trees. 



Should the earth be rather shallow, so that the roots 

 cannot be sufficiently cove.-ed with good soil, a quantify 

 must be brought from a distance to bank the roots around 

 with ; for there is no alternative, between planting them 

 in the good soil, where their roots can take a wide ex- 

 tended horizontal direction, and lie within the reach of 

 the genial influence of heat, rain, dew and air, and that 

 of an untimely end, if planted too deep. One or two 

 loads of mud from meadows or ditch banks, laid round 

 each tree, on a light soil, and ploughed the next spring, 

 where the mud has become pulverized, has been found 

 highly usoiul. 



If a far.'ner has not an eligible situation for a regular 

 orchard, he can plant trees in various parts of the farm, 

 not otherwise occupied, as on the borders and corners 

 of fields contiguous to roads, lanes, &,c. In some instan- 

 ces it is deemed a preferable method to set trees on 

 the sides 'of a square tield, the centre of which is left 

 open for pasture or tillage. 



Mr. Coxe^ who is considered the most experienced 

 orcharnist in the United States, from experiment, is 

 satisfied with the soundness of the prevailing opinion, 

 agjiinst the sites of old orchards for new plantations. 

 This remark however, he says, ought not to be applied 

 to the spots where young trees, or those even of mi4- 



