Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 337 



select about four inches in circumference ; cut them off about one 

 foo+, from the ground and pull them up carefully, so as to lose none 

 of the roots. This may be done by taking a hitch on the stump, 

 close to the ground, with a bight of untwisted hemp rope. With a 

 stiff lever thrust through the bight ; a man can easily lift a stump two 

 inches in diameter. Larger and refractory stumps should have the 

 soil worked from under the main roots and a more powerful lever 

 applied. The rays of the sun should never be allowed to strike the 

 roots, nor should they be drenched with buckets of water, as this 

 will wash off all the alumina. Sprinkle them carefully with a bush, 

 and keep cool, damp and well ventilated until they are heeled in. 

 Select a moist, not wet, spot convenient to soft water, excavate a pit 

 four feet wide, one foot deep, and of such length as required by the 

 number of trees. Dig a trench eighteen inches deep for the top 

 roots, which should be cut off to thirty inches, then set in the trees, 

 filling back the earth taken from the next trench as well as from the 

 sides of the pit till all are heeled in, when the whole mass of loose 

 earth must be completely saturated with water and the soil perfectly 

 settled around the roots ; first providing, however, for a speedy 

 drainage, so the water will not stand in the pit. Erect a temporary 

 shelter tc exclude the sun at first. Remove this gradually until 

 the tree so suddenly brought from the dense shades of the hum- 

 mock will be enabled to endure the light and rejoice in the genial 

 rays of a Florida sun. In a few weeks, with an occasional water- 

 ing, the trees will begin to sprout, when they must be carefully 

 removed to their respective places. They may be budded at any time 

 when the bark is free, but no sprouts should be removed until the 

 following year. The tree has new roots to make, and it will only 

 strike root in proportion to the amount of foliage. Let a tree make 

 all the wild top possible the first year ; it, at the same time, makes 

 feeders, and, when you have secured a good flow of sap, you may 

 consistently expect to force the sweet bud by pruning off all others. 

 Mr. McDonald claims the healing process to be original with him, as 

 applied to the orange, and to be the grand secret of his success. 

 Setting out a grove of sweet seedling trees is exactly like setting out 

 an apple orchard. Trees should be planted about twenty feet apart,, 

 or about one hundred to the acre ; nor should they be set deeper than 

 nature put them. In transplanting, mark the north sicte of each tree,, 

 that it may be reset exactly as it originally stood. Do not cultivate 

 any crop which will overshadow the orange, but the grove is greatly 

 benefited by the culture of low crops. Do not plough too close to. the. 

 [Inst.] 22 



