130 ESSAY ON DEEP TILLING. 



to obtain peaty soil for Rhododendrons and other shrubs for -which 

 peat has been recommended. But all grow equally well planted 

 deep in trenched garden soil. We are therefore not an advocate 

 for special soils, so much as for special tillage and manures. 



The constitution and habits of all kinds of vegetation are not 

 very dissimilar. Why then should celery alone among vegetables 

 be cultivated in rich soil, trenched from two to three feet deep, 

 and its roots half that depth below the surface for a long time, not 

 only with impunity but with the most thrifty growth ? This is done 

 ostensibly for bleaching, but who can fail to see the manifest good 

 from its deep culture ? What is this vegetable by nature ? or in 

 its natural soil ? Why should the pear, and that only on the 

 quince, be planted so deep as to throw out roots from its own stock 

 and for that purpose merely ? Is any tree more thrifty than this, 

 thus planted in rich trenched soil ? What is the native by the side 

 of the improved or cultivated pear ? And what may not deep terra 

 culture yet accomplish ? 



The tap root of a tree is cut off in the nurseries or destroyed 

 when taken up elsewhere, then why may not the remaining roots 

 be set deeper as a substitute for the loss ; and if other roots are 

 thrown out, what is the harm ? Indeed, why has it a tap root at 

 all, if deep rooting is not necessary ? Our practice, however, is to 

 plant so deep that the existing roots shall throw out laterals in all 

 directions, but not to require them from the collar of the tree. We 

 never lost a tree by deep planting. Some are thereby later putting 

 out in the spring, and we have adopted a plan in some instances, 

 of not bringing all the earth around the tree till after the leaves 

 have started, and even much later, when it answers well for mulch- 

 ing. Planted in this manner, we have yet to learn whether the 

 late growth of wood will not ripen to withstand the winter. 



Let us be understood as advocating deep planting only when the 

 soil has been properly prepared. We would sooner place a tree on 

 the surface of the ground and heap dirt around it, than thrust it in 

 a hole barely large and deep enough to receive its roots. We can 

 conceive of no more certain way to destroy a tree, than this expos- 

 ure to half a dozen mortal causes. A tree set in such a basin, with 

 a hard stratum beneath, is liable to be drowned ; the water excludes 

 the air and the tree is stifled. Even if good loam is put around the 

 roots for early use, when they are obliged to extend latterally into 



