152 POMEROY ON FRUIT PLANTATIONS* 
The situations are generally chosen, so as to avoid 
the extremes, which either expose too much, from 
their elevation, or are liable to suffer from moisture, 
by being low. A gentle declivity, and south or south¬ 
west aspect, with a view to secure them from the chills 
of the north and east, is sought for : some distant 
screen also to the west, to protect them from the vio¬ 
lence of the winds proceeding from that quarter, is 
required. No preparation of the ground, for planting, 
is made, beyond that which occurs in the common 
course of husbandry. 
The stocks are generally raised from seed obtained 
from the crab, or kernel fruits, and mostly bought at 
nurseries. The price is from 8d. to Is. Gd. : the 
management of them must of course be uniform; the 
only object with the nursery-men, being to procure 
strong, upright, handsome plants, without any view to 
their future application, as to the different kinds of 
fruit which they are to bear ; some are also procured 
wild from the woods. They are planted at about 
eight or ten year's growth, seven or eight feet high, 
and about four inches girth; in this situation, they re¬ 
main, in general, three years before grafting, as it is 
esteemed the best practice, to graft after they are 
transplanted to the spot on which they are to continue. 
The time of performing this, is in the months of March 
and April. The methods chiefly used are, the stock 
and saddle grafting. In the former, the head of the 
stock being sawed off, and two or more openings made 
with the saw, and afterwards smoothed with a knife, 
an equal number of grafts are secured in them with 
clay, or the common soil of the ground, tempered into 
a paste with water. In the latter, the head is also 
taken off, and the graft bestrides its top, which is 
shaped 
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