23 



wind-screen of Lombardy poplars, to stand up in the eye 

 of the wind and break it up into air-spray. It is astonish- 

 ing what an amount of gusty weather these quincunxes or 

 or sets of five (for into that pattern they naturally run), 

 will bear up against w ithout damage, because each tree is 

 more or less a. safeguard to two of its neighbours down the 

 wind. But supposing that you can take your pick of land 

 previously unenclosed, then bethink you so to place your 

 orchard as to hang diagonally across the wind-run, not 

 with a hard line at right angles to it. Yet such common 

 sense is often forgotten, and the line is drawn straight 

 across the brute force of the prevailing winds, instead of 

 half coaxing, half slipping it aside. 



23. Everybody thinks he can plant a tree, just as every- 

 one believes he can poke a fire, make a speech, or drive a 

 buggy till he has tried. It is easy to plant a tree wrong 

 and make an utter mess of it, but we want a more excellent 

 way. Even supposing that your ground is well aerated by 

 trenching, it is quite worth while to have all the holes for 

 your graf tlings dug out before you begin. You get the 

 run of them better, you can correct the lines of setting, 

 and the stuff thrown out in the upcast is all the better for 

 being exposed to the sun and air. Particularly is this to 

 b<3 recommended when the loam you are planting in is just 

 a little too clayey. Let us suppose you have purchased 

 your graf tlings by selection from a first class nurseryman, 

 and with all due care to the nature of the stocks upon 

 which they have been worked, the pedigree sorts they 

 represent, and the proportions of the kinds according to 

 the fruit-business you intend to run. As soon as they 

 arrive, have the parcels opened without an hour's delay, 

 and heel them in properly at once. Do this even if the 

 holes are ready and you mean to plant next morning at 

 daylight. A score of things may happen to postpone your 

 work ; besides, the labour is very trifling. You dig 

 a furrow with one side specially slanting, in the lightest 

 and most open soil that you can command, taking 

 care that it is moist, or rather, damp without being 

 wet, and not exposed to the sweltering sunshine. 

 Along the slope of this you lay your trees one by 

 one from left to right, carefully sticking in a name-label at 



