74 



FRUIT GARDEN COMPANION. 



them anew before it can make any growth. When 

 fibrous roots are cut off, the tree itself may be 

 considered as merely a cutting, which must form its 

 roots from the base before it can grow to any size 

 and make the wonted efforts of vegetation designed 

 by nature. 



The planting of fruit requires more practical 

 knowledge and particular attention than is generally 

 apprehended by the inexperienced cultivator. From 

 mismanagement in planting may be often traced, not 

 only a lingering and unfruitful growth of the tree, 

 but, in many cases, little effort in vegetation after 

 planting and the certain death of the tree in a few- 

 years. This defect may sometimes be traced to 

 planting too deep, which in my practice I have 

 found a universal error in fruit trees planted in small 

 city gardens, and other places, when it has been 

 done by inexperienced hands. Planting too deep 

 is more particularly exemplified in the apple, the 

 cherry, and those kinds of trees whose roots natu- 

 rally grow near the earth's surface. Deep planting 

 brings such roots into a location where they cannot 

 receive their wonted stimulants, as the influence of 

 the sun and air ; and the food that is conveyed to 

 them under such circumstances is in a crude, acrid 

 state, and destitute of those fertilizing qualities it 

 would acquire nearer the earth's surface. This 

 consequence will always happen to trees planted too 

 deep, as the cherry, apple, and indeed all kinds that 

 do not strike roots from the main stem, as the wil- 

 low, button-ball, and many kinds of forest trees, and 

 shrubs, which, when planted too deep, lose their 

 original roots, and replace them from the stem near 

 the earth's surface. In contrariety to the above, 



