CULTURE GF FRUIT. 



107 



thjS roots of the trees — the next furrow may be 

 ploughed deeper, and the centre part as deep as pos- 

 sibly can be done. This ploughing should be so 

 managed that the ground lays rather highest near the 

 trees, and the last furrow, which should be in the 

 centre between them, forms a drain to take off the 

 surface water in the spring. 



In the following spring the ground may again be 

 manured and ploughed or dug as before directed. 



As the trees increase in size and the roots send 

 out their small fibres, the earth should not be 

 worked so deep as to interrupt their expansion and 

 progress, but the surface about the stem of the tree 

 should be merely hoed and kept clean^ and the 

 ground in the middle of the rows worked deeper 

 until the whole of the soil is threaded over with 

 roots, which will be in a few years. It is much to 

 be doubted if a system of working deep among fruit 

 trees is correct after the first years of planting ; be- 

 cause their roots are interrupted and cut off in their 

 progress, and it is a truth which admits not a mo- 

 ment's question, that the roots of trees require to extend 

 themselves as the top makes a progress in growth, to 

 support and nourish the tree. 



I recommend that a quantity of compost as 

 directed under its proper head be spread over the 

 ground every other year, and the land if cultivated 

 be kept clean by hoeing, raking and like culture, 

 but not dug or plouged deep when the ground; is 

 rooted over. 



