256 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ November, 
subsoil or under-spit of the. orchard may be a clay, hard-pressed and impervious 
to rain, and as poor as a stone in the way of food for plants, and yet this is the 
staple that has to be converted ; this clay has to be cast, but not buried. Every 
one thinks he can dig, and it is reputed next to beggary— u To dig I am not 
able, to beg I am ashamed,” said the unjust steward ; but even this simple delving 
requires experience, and it is laughable to see a beginner sweating himself 
with a navvy’s shovel, by way of cultivating his front garden of 12 ft. by 4 ft. 
Ordinary trenching is done by cutting out slices 2 ft. wide, and casting the 
top spit right into the bottom of the trench. This is garden trenching, where 
the soil has been repeatedly moved, and the bottom spit is as good soil as the top, 
or perhaps better. When I mentioned the brickmakers casting the clay, it was 
practically to illustrate my meaning, for the orchard would not be improved by 
having its clay subsoil on the surface and its good earth buried, but by casting, 
each article may be cast into its right place, viz., the weeds in the bottom and 
the clay over these, and the clean good soil on the top. I do not speak here of 
manuring, as I am confining this paper to trenching, for the sake of showing that 
the food of the trees should be spread out where the mouths, f.e., roots, can find it. 
All tap-roots are usually cut off in the nursery before coming into the hands of the 
orchard-owner, but the forest Oak, with its huge roots above-ground, teaches 
every tree-grower the lesson that it would have buried them, but for want of 
earth. In orchard-planting it is quite within our power to keep the plough in the 
ground, for every root is at all times ploughing its way into fresh pasture. 
In Vine-culture we have the summer heat in our own hands, by means of 
glass roofs and liot-water pipes, but in the orchard the trenching and fattening is 
pretty nearly all we can do, and we should do this well. Where the trees are 
short-lived, splendid fruit can be got from young trees before they get beyond 
the trenched depth. Many people seem frightened at digging up an Apple-tree, 
as if root-pruning had never been heard of. A tree that is running away from 
its work, and getting into bad pasture, may be cut adrift from its outlying roots 
and placed on the surface or near it, in fresh soil. 
The Pear-tree is usually larger than the Apple, and more inclined to become 
tap-rooted; hence we often see a fine piece of brick wall in a garden-, covered with 
a Pear-tree producing leaves and foreright shoots only. In such cases I have 
often longed to have 4 ft. of its crown cut off, and all its arms cut back to half 
their length, and its roots in like manner cut back to a fathom in length. How 
such a trunk would take anew to clay and cow-dung at the root, and salve of the 
same materials plastered over the wounds, and over all the bark to retain moisture 
until the circulation had set in ! In the valley of the Thames, if the soil be 
simply manured, it will need little other preparation for Pear and Apple-trees ; 
but in most localities where Pears and Apples are grown on stiff soils, over un¬ 
healthy subsoils the trenching is a safe and healthy remedy. It is hateful to 
see an unhealthy scrub cumbering the ground, when had it been properly fed and 
tended, its fruit might have gladdened the eye, — Alex. Forsyth, Salford. 
