70 CULTIVATION OF THE SOIL. 



they were in an excellent soil, and had been well 

 set out. All the rows but one had stood in a field 

 of wheat ; that one was hoed with a crop of pota- 

 toes. The result was striking. Of the trees that 

 stood among the wheat, some had made shoots the 

 same year, an inch long, some two inches, and a 

 very few, five or six inches. While on the other 

 hand, on nearly every one that grew with the po- 

 tatoes, new shoots a foot and a half could be found, 

 and on some the growth had been two feet, two 

 and a half, and three feet. Other cases have fur- 

 nished nearly as decisive contrasts. 



An eminent cultivator of fine fruit, whose trees 

 have borne for many years, says in a late letter, 

 u My fruit garden would be worth twice as much 

 as it is, if the trees had been planted in thick rows 

 two rods apart so that I could have cultivated 'them 

 with the plough. Unless fruit grows on thrifty 

 trees, we can form no proper judgment of it. Some 

 that we have cultivated this season, after a long 

 neglect, seem like new kinds, and the flavor is in 

 proportion to the size. Bearing trees often stand 

 in thick grass, and poor crops and poor fruit are 

 the usual result ; and the nurseryman who sold 

 them is not unfrequently pronounced a rogue for 

 thus distributing worthless kinds, when good cul- 

 tivation would wholly change their character. 



The " thick rows" two rods apart, spoken of in the 

 preceding extract, may be composed of trees which 



