THE ART OF TRANSPLANTING TREES. 347 



be fatted to repletion, that it may be made to grow thriftily and 

 well, or that it may be absolutely starved to death, as certainly as 

 a Berkshire. It is not enough (unless a man has rich bottom 

 lands) to plant a tree in order to have a satisfactory growth, and a 

 speedy gratification in its fruit and foliage. You must provide .a 

 supply of food for it at the outset, and renew it as often as necessary 

 during its lifetime. He who does this, will have five times the 

 profit and ten times the satisfaction of the careless and sluggish 

 man, who grudges the labor and expense of a little extra feeding 

 for the roots. The cheapest and best food for fruit trees, with most 

 farmers, is a mixture of swamp muck and stable manure, which has 

 laid for some two or three months together. The best manure, 

 perhaps, is the same muck, or black peat, reduced to an active state 

 with wood ashes. A wheelbarrow load of this compost, mixed with 

 the soil, for each small transplanted tree, will give it a supply of 

 food that will produce a growth of leaf and young wood that will 

 do one's heart good to look upon. 



Any well decomposed animal manure may be freely used in 

 planting trees ; always thoroughly incorporating it with the whole 

 of the soil that has been stirred, and not throwing it directly about 

 the roots. 



There are, however, some improvident men who will plant trees 

 without having any food at hand, except manure in a crude state. 

 " What shall we do," they ask, " when we have only fresh stable 

 manure ?" Perhaps we ought to answer " wait till you have some- 

 thing better." But since they will do something at once, or not at 

 all, we must give them a reply ; and this is, make your hole twice 

 as large and twice as deep as you would if you had suitable com- 

 post. Then bury part of the fresh manure below the depth where 

 the roots will at first be, mixing it with the soil, treading the whole 

 down well to prevent settling, and covering the whole with three 

 inches of earth, upon which to plant the tree. Mix the rest with 

 the soil, and put it at the sides of the hole, keeping the manure 

 both at the sides and bottom, far enough away, that the roots of the 

 tree shall not reach it for two months. Then plant the tree in some 

 of the best good soil you can procure. 



One of the safest and best general fertilizers that can be used in 



