MANAGEMENT OF FRUIT TREES, &c. 125 



taking eare to trim all the side shoots, leaving only one straight 

 stem. These beds may have alleys about the same width as 

 before, with this difference, that the beds should be two inches 

 lower than the alleys, which must be well trodden, to keep the 

 earth from crumbling down into the beds. First level all your 

 ground, then stretch the line from one end of the bed to the 

 other, according to the size of the ground, and with your spade 

 cut off the edging in the inside of the bed, throwing the mould 

 towards the middle of it ; then remove the line to the other 

 fiide of the bed, which ought to be from four to six feet wide, 

 and cut the other edge, throwing the mould into, the bed as be- 

 fore. When this is done, throw up some of the mould on the 

 top of the alley, to make it about two inches higher than the 

 bed, and tread the alley well down. Then begin to plant your 

 young trees in rows across the bed, a foot or fifteen inches 

 apart, and about six iiiiches in the row, digging the ground and 

 planting as you proceed, also beating up the edges of the alleys 

 with the baclj; of your spade, to keep the mould from tumbling 

 down into the bed. Proceed thus till you have finished the bed, 

 and so on till you have planted the whole. If it be dry weather, 

 each bed should be watered as yOu finish planting it, which be- 

 ing made a little lower then the alleys will retain the water that 

 you throw on it, and will prevent the rain from running off : If 

 the dry weather continue long, mulch the beds as before direct- 

 ed. Observe to keep them free from weeds, watering them as 

 occasion requires, and trimming up the plants with only one 

 stem. In this state they may remain two years, and, if any qf 

 the plants require it, stake them to keep them straight. At 

 the end of two years they will be fit for transplanting, and may 

 be plan,ted out for good, if they are properly fenced off from 

 cattle ; but if they are to be placed in an ope^i exposure, they 

 ought first to be planted out in a piece of ground, properly pre- 

 pared for the purpose, at the distance of two feet from row to 

 row, and one foot in the row. If they have been planted in 

 the autun^n (which I would always recommend, except in wet 

 ground, or when the season is wet), let them remain till next 

 spring twelvemonth, and then head them down to two eyes 

 above ground, cutting as near as may be to an eye, and sloping 

 to the North, that the shoot which is thrown out may cover 

 the stem in the first seasons which, if the business be rightly 

 performed, it will do, and grow to the length of six or seven 

 feet, according to the vigour of the stem. If they are not 

 headed down in, this manner, you will never have straight 

 handsome trees. If the ground be properly fenced off from, 

 cattle, those that aje planted out for good, at three years old^ 



s 



