By Mr. John Robertson. 



139 



steeper it is, if not quite a precipice, the more fertile they 

 prove. 



In preparing low alluvial grounds for the purpose of 

 planting Orchards, the mounds or banks cast up should 

 run parallel with the river, to impede the washing away of 

 any of the soil ; one or more cuts at right angles with the 

 trenches should communicate with it to facilitate the drainage 

 of the water ; to these sluices may be attached, should cir- 

 cumstances require it. These banks should be raised if 

 possible at least three or four feet above the highest water- 

 mark, and be made eighteen feet broad at the base, and twelve 

 at top ; for this purpose, a cut of about fifteen or sixteen feet 

 wide will be necessary, admitting the soil to be three or four 

 feet deep, leaving a distance between each row of Fruit 

 Trees of about thirty-three feet ; but these proportions must 

 depend on the depth of the soil. The Trees when at their full 

 growth, will require a distance from each other in the lines of 

 about thirty feet, but as they are likely to be soon productive, 

 I would recommend planting them at first at half the distance, 

 and removing every other tree afterwards, when they shall in- 

 terfere so as to injure each other. The sides of such banks I 

 have found to answer extremely well for Strawberries, on ac- 

 count of the convenience of water in a dry season. 



This practice of raising banks to plant Fruit Trees on may, 

 I think, be profitably carried to a further extent on those soils, 

 whether clayey or sandy, which have not sufficient depth to 

 support such trees in a healthy state; as a certainty of their 

 success may in that case be insured, by accumulating the soil 

 of the intervals in ridges or banks, should the object appear 

 to justify the sacrifice of the intermediate spaces. 



