64 Remarks on Planting Fruit Trees. 



formed, and no further care is needed, only to occasionally 

 lop off a few of the branches. An idea that trees can be 

 grown without any extraordinary care, has been so generally 

 prevalent, that it has led to great disappointments; and when 

 they have ceased to produce abundant crops, the fault is at- 

 tributed to the variety — which is considered as worn out, and 

 unfit for further cultivation. 



If we should examine into all the errors which are commit- 

 ted in the planting of fruit trees, we should find that one of 

 the greatest of all is, that o? too deep planling. The soil may 

 be good — the situation favorable — manure hberally supplied, 

 and the pruning judiciously performed — but if the error of 

 deep planting has been committed, it will render unavailing 

 the efforts of the cultivator to make his trees produce good 

 crops of fine fruit. It is from this reason that we see how 

 rapidly the fruitfulness of trees decreases-, in cultivated gar- 

 dens, as they become older, until they cease to bear altogeth- 

 er, and are finally rooted out. The trunks and branches 

 become mossy and cankered — the sap vessels do not perform 

 their functions, and the growth is so feeble that no Jolossom 

 buds are perfected, or, if perfected, the trees have not suffi- 

 cient strength to hold the young fruit, which soon falls to the 

 ground. We are persuaded, from actual observation, that 

 deep planting is the great cause of the decay and unfruitfulness 

 of trees, in cultivated gardens: in orchards, where the soil is 

 only occasionally ploughed, the roots do not get covered with 

 earth, and the trees remain productive a much greater length 

 of time. 



Trees, in the first instance, are planted too deep — and the 

 roots soon get buried, from the settling of the soil and the 

 application of manure, until, in the course of time, they be-- 

 come covered five or six inches: by the continual digging of 

 the soil the surface roots are destroyed, and all the nourish- 

 ment is obtained from the lower roots, which are so deep that 

 they are placed beyond the action of the sun and air, which 

 are both so necessary to the healthy state of the tree. If the 

 situation is highly favorable, with a dry subsoil, the trees are 

 not so soon affected — but if, on the contrary, it is low, and 

 the soil likely to be saturated with water, and, withal, of a 

 retentive character, the decay of the trees will soon be per- 

 ceptible, and they will, ere long, become unproductive and 

 decrepit objects. 



