ESSAY ON DEEP TILLINQ. 1-29- 



of preparing for the next plantation. Employment, useful and with. 

 an object, is essential to our happiness. 



Just now the universal caution is, not to plant deep. Why ? 

 Not because deep planting is not necessary in point of fact, but for 

 the reason that so many trees are buried in mere graves to die 

 afterwards by stifling, thirst and starvation. Where is the tree or 

 shrub, cereal or vegetable, that does not take deep root if it can, and 

 can find food there ? Yea, in preference to superficial growing. Was 

 there ever an old drain or vault not permeated or filled with the 

 roots of trees standing in the vicinity ? We have found them eight 

 feet from the surface. Who has not noticed the rank growth of 

 trees, briars and weeds by the railroad side ? Rich loam or vege- 

 table mould do not abound there — mulching or manures are not 

 applied. What then is the cause but deep stirring and mingling of 

 the earth, its comparative light and porous condition, through which 

 the rains of heaven filter freely, imparting herspecial manures as 

 they descend, and descend but to return by the slow process of 

 capillary attraction, and by the very rootlets which feed upon them ? 



We have transplanted successfully, hundreds of one of the most, 

 superficial growers of the forest, the Hemlock Spruce (Abies Can- 

 adensis) setting them three inches or more deeper than we found, 

 them, or sufiiciently so to smother the grass taken up with the trees. 

 The common Laurel (Kalmia Latifolia) with which most people fail 

 of success, has succeeded entirely planted in trenched ground. 

 These were taken from very poor, sandy soil where the roots ran 

 near the surface, and planted three inches deeper. 



The farmer may boast of his natural soil, wet or shallow, and 

 trifle with the idea of an artificial one, or the benefits of science. 

 The sage nursery-man may direct to plant the tree only as deep as 

 natural, and in similar soil, heedless of the fact that cultivation gives 

 a second nature. With this word nature, however, and its advo- 

 cates, we have but little sympathy. What was ever more fortui- 

 tous than the formation of soil on the face of the earth, or the 

 lodgment of seeds of the vegetable kingdom ? Cultivation is arti- 

 ficial, and the more art directed by science, the greater the success. 

 The progressive cultivator is not to enquire what nature does 

 without the means to do with, but what can or rather what cannot 

 art accomplish with the help of science, vegetable physiology, ob- 

 servation, and practical experience. We have taken great pains, 

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