110 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[April. 
PLAN OF GROUNDS AROUND A COUNTRY RESIDENCE. 
Explanations—1, House— 2, Barn— 3, 3, 3, 3, Flower Garden— 4, 4, 4, 4, Lawns— 3, Entrance to the premises— 
6, 6, 6, Flower Plots or Beds. 
One Plan for Laying out Country Grounds. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist: 
Can you help an old subscriber out of a bad 
scrape? I bought Downing’s Landscape Garden¬ 
ing, to assist me in laying out my grounds; but 
the plans are too expensive, and my cranium is 
too thick to comprehend and carry them out. I 
like your plan in the October No., but I can not 
arrange my trees and walks and shrubbery to 
suit me. There is not a tasty front yard in this 
courty, so far as I can learn... .1 send herewith 
a rough sketch of my premises, their dimensions, 
etc., and wish you would draw out a plan to suit 
it. Tours, to command, as Mr. Bunker says, 
N. E. Blodgett. 
To the above out-spoken letter of our friend 
(whose locality we do not recall), we answer, 
that while it is usually impossible to devote the 
required time needed to examine and respond to 
individual plans and specifications, we have in 
this case taken the notes forwarded, and worked 
out a plan, which may be suggestive both to Mr. 
B. and others. The explanatory notes above, fur¬ 
nish all needed information in regard to the de¬ 
sign. The engraver has made the trees all alike ; 
those in the lawns, 4, 4, 4, are intended for va¬ 
rious deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs. 
The entire front and sides might be lined with an 
Arbor Vita screen, if desired. 
Hints on Starting Private and Commercial 
Nurseries. 
In response to a great number of questions from 
various sources, (including half a dozen formal 
ones from S. A. Allison, Indiana County, Pa.,) 
we throw together here a few hints which will 
cover the ground embraced in all the queries we 
believe. 
1. Seeds and Sowing —Seeds of all tree fruits, 
including also nuts, acorns, locust, etc., should be 
gathered and placed in the ground, or put in box¬ 
es of earth as soon as ripe, that is, during Nature’s 
planting season. Most of them may be made to 
grow alter keeping months or even years, if not 
too thoroughly dried out, but they rarely vege- 
ta*e so well. If not planted at once, they may 
be put in boxes of moist but not wet soil, and be 
exposed to freezing during Winter, or not. If not 
put in earth, they should be kept in a cool place 
entirely away from fire heat or warmth, and not 
in a garret room heated by the sun’s rays. As 
early as possible in Spring they should be put 
into a seed bed. Some plant them at once in drills 
or nursery rows, but it is better to prepare a good 
seed bed to start them in, and afterwards trans¬ 
plant to the nursery. For a seed bed choose a 
warm mellow soil, and prepare it by deep spading 
and working in a heavy coat of well-rotted ma¬ 
nure. Pulverize the surface well, and rake off 
smoothly. Sow thickly, in drills eighteen inches 
apart, covering with nearly an inch of finely pul¬ 
verized soil. ( Use seed freely. Better have a 
quantity of the weakest plants to throw away, or 
set elsewhere, than not have enough in the seed 
bed. All that is now necessary, is to keep the 
ground well hoed between the rows, and pull all 
weeds growing amonz the plants. If the seed did 
not come up well, disturb the earth as little as 
possible in the row, for the remainder may come 
up another season. Many of the seeds of stone- 
fruits frequently remain in the ground a year 
before sprouting. 
2. Transplanting to Nursery Rows. —Peaches, 
and many of the plums, pears, and apples, if they 
make a good growth, will be ready to’ transplant 
the next Spring, while the more slow growing 
trees may very properly remain in the seed bed 
two years. As it takes from one to three, and 
sometimes four years, after setting in rows, for 
the trees to attain a good planting size, and as 
the ground can not be readily enriched while they 
are growing, it is important that the soil be heav¬ 
ily manured before putting the trees in nursery 
rows. The ground should also be deeply plowed 
and subsoiled, or spaded and trenched. Except¬ 
ing for some evergreens which thrive in damp 
ground, the nursery soil should be naturally light 
and dry. Having prepared the ground as early as 
it can be worked in Spring, lay off straight rows 
three to three and a half feet apart, with a plow 
or spade, and set the young seedlings eight to 
twelve inches distant in the row, according to 
their prospective size. It is well to set them by 
a stretched line, so as to have the rows perfectly 
straight. If the main or tap root is long, clip the 
lower end to induce side roots. Set them at the 
same depth as they stood in Hie seed bed. 
3. Budding or Grafting. —Seeds of the apple, 
pear, peach, cherry, and plum, rarely produce 
good fruit; therefore some approved sorts are to 
be worked upon them by budding or grafting. 
As buds are set more expeditiously than grafts, 
and also into younger trees, budding is more fre¬ 
quently adopted. The operation was so fully de¬ 
scribed and illustrated in Vol XVI, page 161, that 
we omit it here, merely remarking that it is done 
in June and July, upon stocks one third to one 
half an inch in diameter. Most trees will be of 
the right size the same Summer they are set in 
rows. We have seen the quick growing peach 
transplanted with a trowel when a few inches 
high, and budded the same Summer, making trees 
suitable for planting out in the Fall of the suc¬ 
ceeding year. Usually, however, trees are bud¬ 
ded the season they are set in rows after grow¬ 
ing one or two years in the seed bed. Most trees 
need two years’ growth from the bud to attain a 
selling size. The next season after budding, the 
tops of all trees in which the buds look fresh, 
should be cut off about two inches above the bud. 
Some cut these away in the Autumn after bud¬ 
ding. Rub off any suckers which may start out, 
and tie the new shoot to the projecting stump, if 
it is not growing sufficiently upright. About mid¬ 
summer, cut away this stump, so that the late 
growth may heal the wound. The trees are now 
left to attain a planting out size. Remember to 
keep down all weeds and to have the ground well 
lightened with,the plow or horse hoe. Some of 
the buds will fail to grow, and some trees will 
be too small, or of too weak a growth to be bud¬ 
ded the first season. Attend to these the next 
year, and if any are still left, graft them the follow¬ 
ing Spring, after the manner described on page 
82 of this volume (March No.) Some tree grow¬ 
ers, and still more vegetable physiologists, main¬ 
tain, and with a good degree of reason, that trees 
should be grown in their natural state until plant¬ 
ed in the orchard, and then grafted in the branch¬ 
es. They cqntend that a wilding is more hardy, 
and has a better constitution than a grafted tree, 
and that as much of the native stock should be 
preserved as possible. 
4. Distance apart of Trees in Orchards. —This 
will depend upon the kind, the size and age to be 
attained, and the manner of training. For the 
long-lived, large growing apple trees, 25 to 30 feet 
apart is a good distance. When land is valuable, 
and to be devoted chiefly to fruit, it is not a bad 
practice to set apple trees 15 feet apart, and cut 
out the alternate trees when they attain a large 
size. No tree should shade the soil for several feel 
around the base of another tree. Trees trained as 
dwarfs, or with low compact heads, may stand 
nearer than those trained higher with large spread¬ 
ing heads. Peach Trees which are short lived, 
and never grow to a large size, may be set 15 
to 20 feet apart. The above italicised rule in re¬ 
gard to shading, should be kept in mind. 
No fruit seeds can be depended upon to pro¬ 
duce trees true to the parent stock. The pits of 
good peaches and cherries are more likely to pro¬ 
duce good fruit, than those of poorer varieties, 
but no reliance can be placed upon this mode of 
propagation. Grafting and budding are so easily 
performed, that one or the other should always be 
resorted to. 
To a squire who was boasting of his horse’ 
speed, Sam Foote replied—“ Pooh, my horse will 
stand ‘ faster all day than yours can gallop!” 
