824 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ April 17, 1800. 
fruit grower, and though some are admirable for vegetable crops, 
particularly when deep, they may from containing less than 20 per 
cent, of clay not be staying enough for fruit trees. Sandy loams, 
containing 20 to 30 per cent, of clay, and not much less than 5 per 
cent, each of lime and humus, are admirable Apple soils when not 
impregnated with excessive amounts of oxide of iron. AU sandy 
loams require manuring correspondingly heavier and oftener than 
clay soils. Loams are sandy when the silicious matter predomi¬ 
nates, and clayey when the clay is ascendant. A strong loam consists 
of 30 to 50 per cent, of clay, and less, or not more than 5 per cent, 
each of lime and humus, the remainder sand and other substances. 
Such form admirable soils for orchards and fruit gardens. 
Clay soils contain above 50 per cent of clay—a combination of 
silica with alumina, and quickly absorb water, oils, and fatty sub¬ 
stances, retaining of water 70 per cent, without allowing it to drop 
away, and when only moderately moist, but compact, water pene¬ 
trates it but slowly. Clay dries slowly, shrinks, cracks, readily 
takes up humus and humic acid, which seem to combine partly 
chemically and partly adhesively, in result remaining durably fertile. 
Clay also contains other substances, such as oxide of iron, free and 
insoluble silica, lime, magnesia, potash, soda, &c. Oxidation of 
iron gives colours to clays—protoxide brown, peroxide red, and 
hydrated protoxide blue or greenish. Clay soils are unfitted for 
fruit trees until weathered, improved by draining, liming, deep 
stirring, and manuring. When subjected to cultivation so as to 
have a foot in depth or more of ameliorated sufficiently porous soil 
to allow heat, air, and water to enter freely, clays become very 
productive and are not so soon exhausted as loams. 
Marly soils are not so retentive of moisture as clay, nor so 
porous as calcareous soils. Clay marls, consisting of 50 per cent, 
or more clay, are too stifE for fruit trees ; but, containing more 
soluble silica than perhaps any other soil, they are very suitable for 
mixing with soils that are too light and porous, requiring more com¬ 
pactness and staying power to fit them for the production of stone 
fruit, and are particularly valuable in cases of gumming, where 
lime is not always effectual, through, I apprehend, a deficiency of 
soluble silica. Loamy marl is perhaps the most suitable soil for 
fruit trees, particularly of the stone kind, and ensures heavy crops 
with profitable returns for the manorial agents employed. Sandy 
marls are not suitable for fruit trees, though worked and darkened 
by manuring or humus they afford an excellent medium for early 
crops. 
Calcareous soils vary greatly in nature and texture. When 
sandy they are too light, though not so liable to burn as silicious 
soils, and when clayey are cold and wet ; but when a considerable 
quantity of clay and sand enters into their composition, as occurs 
when the chalk base is covered with a loamy deposit, the soil is 
fertile, and one that drought does not readily affect. Generally 
calcareous soils are or may be rendered available for fruit culture, 
particularly stone fruits. 
The Apple, though it will thrive in many or most soils, succeeds 
best, lives longest, and produces the finest and most satisfactory 
crops on a good loam, substantial, inclining to clay rather than sand. 
In all cases the less the iron the better they will thrive. In hot 
soils the trees are subject to canker, and to die back at the points 
or extremities of the shoots ; whilst in heavy cold soils they are 
similarly affected, though from anomaly of cause and otherwise 
become diseased, moss and lichen covered. Marly soils suit the 
Apple well, and soils that are not naturally calcareous are improved 
by an addition of marl—clay marl to hot sandy soils, and sandy 
marl to heavy soils. 
Soils owe much of their suitability for special purposes to their 
depth. For the Apple it ought not to be less than 18 inches, with an 
equal thickness of yellow loam resting on gravel, which will render 
drainage unnecessary. It is imperative that water should not lodge 
nearer the surface than 3 feet, or it must be disposed of by efficient 
drainage, and the soil must be sufficiently porous to allow of the 
water passing through it and superfiuity passing away by the 
natural or artificial drainage. If there be a pan, as not unfrequently 
occurs, between the ameliorated and under strata of the soil, it 
must be broken, than which nothing is better than trenching, 
but in no case bring up the bottom soil and bury the top soil. 
Merely trenching as deeply as the good soil extends is a fallacious 
proceeding, so far as relates to getting warmth, air, and moisture 
into it. Trees thrive well for a time under such conditions. 
They reach the fruiting stage, and then do not progress satis¬ 
factorily ; the roots have passed into undisturbed soil when it was 
soft and moist, and in a dry hot summer they thrive amazingly, but 
only for a time, as the roots soon draw from it all its available 
moisture, and it becomes a compact dry mass, and remains so 
indefinitely ; and the roots, enticed down by the moisture, having 
nothing to draw from, fail in the supply of sap when the demands 
are greatest; the trees show signs of the privation, the fruits being 
inadequately fed are inferior in size and quality. When the 
stratum of under loam or pan is broken up the soil is more readily 
moistened than the compact mass, rain having free access among 
the loose particles, and the roots penetrate it freely. There is na 
danger of the natural soil being too rich, provided it be porous and 
efficiently drained. Deep soils are sometimes objectionable when 
loose and rich, but such do not occur very often naturally, and 
soils that are naturally porous to a depth of 3 feet obviously do not- 
require moving beyond that required for tillage operations, as by 
loosening we increase the liability to luxuriance, and a shallow rich 
surface soil on a poor hard bottom is objectionable, as it tends to a 
luxuriance in moist periods which cannot be sustained in dry. A 
deep rich soil may not induce over-luxuriance through the favour¬ 
able conditions in which the roots are placed when once the trees 
come into bearing, and it is a point of some consequence to get the 
trees away quickly, so that they may make the necessary growth 
for fruit production, and sustain it afterwards, so that a good soil 
M'ell loosened is absolutely essential. 
Trenching is an operation very little practised in fruit gardens 
and less in orchards, or rather Avhere fruit trees are intended to- 
be planted. It is considered unnecessary, a hole merely being 
formed and a tree stuck in. Except where the soil is naturally of a 
porous nature to a good depth and naturally rich, fruit never will 
be satisfactorily grown. Were the soil properly stirred in the 
first instance larger trees, and more as well as finer fruit, will be 
had in ten years than will be the case in twenty years where it 
has been neglected. Over-luxuriance is not to be encouraged, but 
promote a healthy vigorous growth. It follows that a tree 
making twice the quantity of wood and foliage that another tree 
produces will attain to double the size, and will bear double the 
quantity of fruit ; although it may not commence bearing so early, 
yet it will be always marked by greater and superior produce. 
Manuring, except in the case of poor soils, should be avoided, as 
obviously but a small portion of it can be needed in the case of 
standard trees, and in the case of dwarfs it may tend to over-luxu¬ 
riance unless the soil be poor, Avhen of course manure is essential 
DO enable growth to be made, insuring of and sustaining early 
bearing. Some good compost will in most cases be desirable at 
planting, a barrowload or more to each tree, and this in a naturally 
fertile soil is all the manure required until the trees come into- 
bearing, when it can be applied in accordance with existing exi¬ 
gencies, there being no fear of loss or damage, as solid matter can 
be put on in winter if that form is desirable, and artificials readily 
applied at any time, a combination of both being perhaps most- 
desirable for the continued free production of foliage and fertility 
of the trees. 
In wet, cold, and even shallow soils it has been a practice- 
(immemorable for what is known to the contrary) to plant the 
trees in raised mounds. This plan answers admirably for a time, 
as it is obvious that when the roots extend beyond the mounds they 
will pass into the unsuitable strata in quest of moisture when it ie 
deficient near the top, and the evil day is only put off, not pre¬ 
vented. Either the mounds must be extended as the roots extend, or 
why they should not strike into the unfavourable strata the mounds- 
were made to prevent when they get beyond the mounds it is- 
difficult to see, unless drainage has been had recourse to in the first 
instance, and the mounds are only intended to supply the trees with 
a more suitable rooting area and keep them from the disadvantages 
of an hitherto wet cold soil until it has been made drier by drainage 
and its surface ameliorated, and depth of soil increased by cultural 
operations. Then I raise no objection to planting in mounds- 
where the soil is wet or cold, but in any case the causes that make 
it both must be promptly rectified, and it is a question whether it- 
would not be better to first rid the soil of its cause or causes of 
unsuitability for fruit culture as testified by the mound planting, 
and the soil being made suitable high planting would not only be 
unnecessary but highly objectionable. There are cases when the 
mound-planting may be desirable from opposite cause — viz., 
when the soil is shallow and the trees liable to drought. It may 
seem paradoxical to make hills to retain moisture, but it is a fact 
that soil is absorbent and retentive proportionately to its depth, 
the constituents being the same, and that planting on hillocks 
renders fruit culture practical where it could not otherwise be 
attempted through insufficient depth of soil. The principal point- 
is to add to the sides of the hillocks, as the roots extend, and by 
artificial waterings make good Nature’s deficiencies ; and it is remark¬ 
able that the base of these mounds is always more moist than the- 
general or level ground, which, whether it be for the attractive 
power of the mounds or of the moisture that accumulates at the- 
foot of eminences, it is certain moisture is secured to the extremi 
ties of the roots, when it matters little if the soil be dry near the 
stem. 
When the surface inclines sharply, ridges formed transversely 
on the slope—each row of trees elevated on convex ridges with a. 
sort of valley between—rain will be prevented running off when 
