By Mr. John Robertson. 



137 



bably many other Orchards liable to such inundation, to 

 which the same remedy may be successfully applied. 



The trees in this Orchard having been planted in right 

 lines, and at sufficient distances, I took the opportunity of a 

 dry summer, to run between each row two deep and parallel 

 trenches, and form a high bank in the intermediate space 

 with the earth cast out, a small portion excepted, which was 

 thrown about the stems of the old trees. On these banks, as 

 they contained a sufficient body of soil, and were elevated 

 above the reach of floods, I planted other Fruit Trees the 

 ensuing season, which have since thriven with remarkable 

 health and vigour, and bear abundantly. 



This object effected, I turned my attention to the old 

 trees, and at the first opportunity sank the trenches deeper, 

 and raised the border about them with the mould thrown 

 up; the vacuity formed by the trenches draining off the 

 stagnant water from their roots into an open space, it the 

 more readily evaporated, and what did remain, was rendered 

 vital and wholesome by its impregnation with the air in 

 contact, and instead of being injurious became rather bene- 

 ficial, as it is from open water so impregnated, that plants 

 absorb the oxygen or vital air necessary to the formation of 

 carbonic acid (their principal food) by its combination with 

 the carbon they hold in solution. 



We have numerous proofs that the neighbourhood of 

 water, not pent up but exposed to the air, is not injurious 

 to trees. Some of the most productive and healthy vines I 

 have seen, of all other plants one of the most impatient of 

 stagnant water about its roots, bordered on a horse-pond. 

 In this instance, the old Fruit Trees immediately made fresh 



vol. vn. T 



