CULTIVATION OF THE SOIL. 9] 



A neighbor purchased fifty very fine peach trees, hand- 

 somely rooted, and of vigorous growth ; they were well set 

 out in a field containing a fine crop of heavy clover and 

 timothy. The following summer was dry ; and a luxuriant 

 growth of meadow grass nearly obscured them from sight. 

 What was the consequence ? Their fate was precisely what 

 every farmer would have predicted of as many hills of corn, 

 planted and overgrown in a thick meadow, — very few sur- 

 vived the first year. 



Another person bought sixty, of worse quality in growth'; 

 he set them out well, and kept them well hoed with po- 

 tatoes. He lost but one tree ; and continuing to cultivate 

 them with low hoed crops, they now afford yearly loads of 

 rich peaches. 



Another neighbor procured fifty good trees. Passing his 

 house the same year late in summer, he remarked, " I 

 thought a crop of wheat one of the best for young peach 

 trees ?" — " Just the reverse ; it is one of the worst — all 

 sown crops are injurious; all low hoed ones beneficial." — 

 " Well," answered he, " I have found it so— my fifty trees 

 all lived it is true, but I have lost one year of their growth 

 by my want of knowledge." On examination, they were 

 found in excellent soil, and had been well set out. All the 

 rows were in a field of wheat, except one which was hoed 

 with a crop of potatoes. The result was striking. Of the 

 trees that stood among the wheat, some had made shoots 

 the same year, an inch long, some two inches, and a very 

 few, five or six inches. While on the other hand, on 

 nearly every one that grew with the potatoes, new shoots 

 a foot and a half could be found, and on some the growth 

 had been two feet, two and a half, and three feet. Other 

 cases have furnished nearly as decisive contrasts. 



An eminent cultivator of fine fruit, whose trees have 

 borne for many years, remarks: " My garden would be 

 worth twice as much as it is, if the trees had been planted 

 in thick rows two rods apart so that I could have cultivated 

 them with the plow. Unless fruit grows on thrifty trees, 

 we can form no proper judgment of it. Some that we have 

 cultivated this season, after a long neglect, seem like new 

 kinds, and the flavor is in proportion to the size." 



The thick rows, here alluded to, may 'be composed of 

 e D* 



