SOIL. 107 



moderate richness produces hardy trees, their wood is firm, 

 the buds plump and close together, and the parts well pro- 

 portioned. 



5. Laying out. — ^Where the nursery is of considerable 

 extent, the ground should be laid out and arranged in 

 square or rectangular plots of convenient size, and be 

 intersected with walks. One portion should be set apart 

 for the propagation of stocks from layers, another for cut- 

 tings, another for seeds, &c. In setting apart ground for 

 the different kinds of trees, if there be a choice, the pear 

 should have the deepest and best, the plrnn the most com- 

 pact or clayey, the peach, apricot, cherry, &c., the lightest 

 and dryest. 



6. Exposure. — Kursery ground for fruit trees should be 

 well elevated, but not fully exposed to the prevailing high 

 winds, as the young trees are apt to be broken off during 

 the first year's growth if not kept well tied up to stakes. 

 In our section we find it very advantageous to have some 

 protection from the west winds especially, though we 

 sometimes have a south wind quite destructive in exposed 

 places to the young buds. Situations where snow is liable 

 to drift into, should be avoided, in sections where heavy- 

 enow storms prevail, for sometimes vast quantities of trees 

 are broken down in corners of fences and sheltered situa- 

 tions where the snow accumulates in heavy drifts. 



7. Rotation or Succession of Crops. — ^This is quite as 

 important in the management of the nursery as of the farm. 

 Not more than d5ie crop of one species should be planted 

 on the same ground ; and those of the most opposite 

 character should follow one another. Where one species 

 is grown on the same ground for eight or ten years, it is 

 found by experience that even the most liberal manuring 

 fails to produce such fine, sound, healthy, and vigorous 

 trees as new ground without manure. Where land is 

 scarce, and it is necessary to use the same ground for the 



