March.] THE ORCHARD. 231 
Choice of Trees, Sfc. 
If not provided with trees in your own Nursery, you must apply 
to some public Nursery-man of integrity, who will not deceive you 
in the varieties of the kinds wanted: observe, in the first place, that 
the trees are healthy and fresh looking, without any blemishes, or 
appearance of canker, or worms, in the bark; that they have been 
raised at proper distances, and not drawn up spindling; that their 
heads are well formed and well furnished; that their stems are 
stout, proportionate to their heads, straight, clean, and from five 
to six feet high, from the surface, to the spreading of the branches; 
that they are not more than from two to four years old, from the 
bud or graft, and that all have been worked; that is, budded, or 
grafted, for otherwise, there would be no certainty of having good 
fruit, and besides, they would be much longer coming into bearing. 
These are important objects, and such as you cannot be deceived 
in. Never make choice of larger trees, nor higher in the stems 
than six feet, especially for general plantations, for they never thrive 
as well as young trees, and are subject to be dashed about by the 
wind after planting. 
The next object is to see them taken up with care, so as to pre- 
serve all their roots as entire as possible; when taken up, prune off 
any broken or bruised parts of the roots; shorten long stragglers, 
and top the ends of the principal roots in general, with the knife; 
always observing to prune these roots on the under side, and sloping 
outwards. 
Let several varieties of each particular kind be chosen, such 
as ripen their fruit at different periods from the earliest to the lat- 
est, especially when they are wanted for the table; but by much a 
greater number of autumnal and late-ripening kinds, than of the 
early sorts, particularly of the apples; for the early ripening fruits, 
are of short duration, and only proper for temporary service. When 
you want apples or peaches for distillation, or cider-making, choose 
proper juicy kinds for that purpose, and quantities proportionate 
to your intentions. 
Method of Planting. 
If the trees have been already trained, so as to have full branch- 
ing heads, they must be planted with those entire, only retrenching 
or shortening any irregular, or ill placed branches or shoots, that 
take an awkward direction, or that grow across others, or such as 
run considerably longer than the generality of the others; either 
cutting them clean off, close to the places from whence they pro- 
ceed, or to some young shoot or small leading branch, as may ap- 
pear most eligible, for giving the tree an open spreading form, leav- 
ing no stumps or spurs. 
Should you not be able to procure trees, having furnished and 
well formed heads, and that you are obliged to take such as are thin 
of wood, and running up tall; plant them, having their roots dress- 
