THE FAMILY GARDEN 123 



Fruit Trees in Turf. 



The small fruits and vegetables must be cultivated, 

 but many of the fruit trees may be in turf. Thus along 

 the boundary lines, or next the street, cherry trees will 

 grow to perfection if a little fertilizing material is put 

 about them each year. The apple, pear and peach trees 

 may be made to grow in any soil that will produce a good 

 turf. Under this condition at planting a large hole must 

 be dug and the tree carefully planted, with fine mellow 

 soil packed firmly about the roots. A space about each 

 tree from four to six feet in diameter should be spaded 

 up and kept fine and mellow during the summer, or the 

 same end may be obtained i.e., retaining the moisture 

 in the soil by a mulch of coarse strawy manure, old 

 hay, straw, or other organic matter, spread from three 

 to six inches deep over the space as far as the branches 

 spread. No crops of grass should be allowed to mature 

 on land -occupied by the trees, but be cut two or three 

 times each season and allowed to lie upon the ground 

 under the trees. If this is too conspicuous it may be 

 raked up and fine, well rotted manure be raked in under 

 the trees two or three times each summer. In growing 

 fruit trees of any kind it must be borne in mind that un- 

 less they are liberally fed, the large amount of growth 

 of root, stem, leaf and fruit will soon exhaust the soil of 

 most of its plant food. If the end shoots of apple, pear, 

 cherry and plum trees do not make a growth of from six 

 inches to two feet the trees are not in condition to pro- 

 duce large crops of choice fruits. One needs to give fruit 

 trees on the lawn more care as to beauty of form than 

 if they were in an orchard, and while the trees are 

 young they should be put into perfect shape by pinch- 

 ing the ends of all shoots that are growing outside the 

 outline prescribed and cutting out any branches that are 



