42 THE PEACH 



want of the observance of more care and at- 

 tention in the protection of the roots from the tak- 

 ing up to the resetting, and to increase the propor- 

 tion of losses, there may be much attributed to 

 carelessness in planting. The roots are mostly 

 crowded down into a small, deep hole, twice the 

 depth it should be, and into a cold, poor sub-soil, 

 filling up and settling the earth down by a few 

 shakes of the tree, and thus leaving it to the 

 chances of a dry spring, or a cold wet one, with a 

 dry summer to follow, which is no better for such 

 planting, and there it soon withers and dies. 



Instead of such treatment, it should be put in 

 the well pulverized ground at a moderate depth, 

 not deeper than it stood in the nursery, and even 

 not so deep, if the sub-soil in which it is planted is 

 stiff clay; and in all cases, if the tree has been ex- 

 posed and become dry, soak the roots in water be- 

 fore planting, as above described. 



For small peach trees, one year old, and for ap- 

 ples, two and three years old, in planting them, 

 every shovelful of earth should be pressed by the 

 foot firmly to the roots, with no shaking up and 

 down, and misplacing and doubling the small roots 

 and fibres, under the old absurd idea, that practi- 

 cal experience never originated or sanctioned. The 

 tree must be established in the first place, firmly 

 in the ground, with the earth impacted about its 

 roots, leaving no room for mould, or other fungi, 



