128 AMERICAN POMOLOGY. 



trees ; but even this has its origin partly with the pur- 

 chaser, who too often wishes to have his trees drawn up 

 as high as possible; instead of demanding low heads he 

 asks for high ones, and will sometimes offer a premium 

 for trees that have grown in one season, the second from 

 the root graft, eight or ten feet in a single shoot, so that 

 he may at once calculate upon forming the head where he 

 wants it, out of the reach of his horse; a calculation, how- 

 ever, which he will not realize. 



THE PEEPARATION OP THE SOIL for a nursery should 

 be as deep and as thorough as possible, for some things it 

 is best even to trench the ground; but generally, the 

 thorough plowing, with a deep-tiller, or a trench-plow, 

 will be sufficient, and if followed by the subsoil lifter, so 

 much the better. One of the most intelligent horticultur- 

 ists, and most successful nurserymen in the country, finds 

 that he can produce a better result in depth and fineness 

 of tilth, by using the Double Michigan plow, than he can 

 with the spade. A piece of clover-sod thus plowed in the 

 fall, and subsoiled at the same time, will be in fine order 

 for nursery purposes, after a thorough cross-plowing and 

 harrowing in the following spring. If the land has been 

 under-drained, so much the better. There is little good 

 land that would not be much improved for nursery pur- 

 poses by tile draining. 



If manure is to be applied, it may be spread upon the 

 clover-sod before plowing, or it may be thrown upon the 

 plowed ground at once or at any time during the winter, 

 to be worked into the soil by the spring plowing; if com- 

 posted, it may be spread just before the spring stirring. 



LAYING Our. In laying out the nursery, some taste 



