yo FRUIT GARDEN. 



that vigorous budded trees from four to seven feet in 

 height can be obtained at the nurseries at from three 

 dollars to five dollars per hundred. The first step is 

 to plant the pits or stones in November, in some rich, 

 light, or sandy soil, covering them about three inches 

 deep. They may be placed in rows four feet apart, and 

 six or eight inches from each other. Or, the pits may 

 be deposited during the autumn, in moist sand or light 

 mould, and there left to form sprouts, which are taken 

 from the stones and planted in rows. After the first 

 summer's growth, they are budded in August and Sep- 

 tember. Early the succeeding spring, those in which 

 the operation has succeeded have the old wood cut 

 down close above the new bud, which will shoot up in 

 the course of the season, from three to nine feet hi^^h, 

 with numerous side-branches. In some of the Western 

 States, we are informed, it is common to plant the stones 

 in November, and bud the growth the following June, 

 head down in July, and thus secure a growth of four 

 or six feet within one year from the planting of the 

 stone. When budding is performed on the plum stock, 

 they will, it is said, live for half a century, and be free 

 from the attacks of the woriii, which is so apt to destroy 

 the tree by its excavations into the bark immediately 

 below the crown of the root., In poor, sandy soils, or 

 gravelly subsoils, the tree is very short-lived, seldom 

 bearing more than one or two crops before becoming 

 sickly, and dying with what is commonly called the 

 yellows. A light clay loam is the most favorable soil 

 for the peach-tree, arid this must be kept rich, or other- 

 wise the trees will soon" exhaust the fertility of the 

 ground, and perish from the yelloivs. Although a clay 

 subsoil, retentive of moisture, is so congenial to the 



