trees have made, and the dark green of their foliage. 
I attribute this to the moisture-retaining nature of 
charcoal when spread over the surface, thereby pre¬ 
serving the roots from drouth. I am also the more 
convinced of this quality as we had several flower beds 
covered in the same way, and during the past dry 
season, when aJmost every thing was burnt up, the 
vates the soil; not another gallon ought to be wasted, 
nor another shovel-full spread along the highway or 
thrown into the streets ; it should be preserved and 
made use of with jealous care whenever and wherever 
it can be got. It cannot I think be misapplied. C. S. 
Sites for Peach Orchards. 
Intelligent cultivators have been long familiar with 
the fact, that the peach crop more uniformly escapes 
the frost, on hills, and in exposed localities, than in 
warm valleys. On hills, the wood ripens early and 
becomes hardy, and the frosts are not so sharp, although 
the cold winds may be more sensibly felt by animals 
and men. We have long entertained the opinion, that 
by a selection of aspect, and the adoption of shelter, 
there is scarcely a county in the northern states, where 
peaches might not he raised with considerable unifor¬ 
mity. By shelter, we mean shelter from the sun on 
frozen trees, more than mere shelter from the cold. 
A late number of the Granite Farmer furnishes 
some corroborating facts on this point, which we con¬ 
dense for our readers. Charles Richardson, of Man¬ 
chester, N. H., who cultivates a fine garden, succeeds 
in raising the best peaches on a tree almost completely 
shaded on the south and east from the sun, the roots, 
body and branches being kept at low temperature, 
while his other trees are barren. The fine peaches 
which excited so much attention at the Horticultural 
Society’s rooms, in that city, raised by A. C. Heath 
and 0. P. Warner, were from trees protected from the 
sun on the east and southeast, by brick walls. A tree 
in Concord, on the very top of what is called “The 
Mountain,” has borne abundantly, the best of peaches, 
for twenty-five years, stands in a very exposed situa¬ 
tion, aud is surrounded every winter by snow banks 
several feet deep, which, melting late in spring, keeps 
the fruit-buds back till they are safe from frost. 
Walpole, in Massachusetts, is celebrated for its fine 
peaches. The Neponset runs in a northerly direction 
through the town; and on its low banks, the peach tree 
grows luxuriantly, but never bears. On the gravelly 
ridges, above the valley, the trees bear abundantly. 
The editor of the Farmer states that in riding a distance 
of the fourth of a mile, up one of these ridges, he passed 
“ from a ‘peach barren to a peach plenty .” 
Preparing Ground for Orchards, 
Digging holes eight feet in diameter, and filling 
them with well mixed and enriching materials, and 
trenching in plenty of decayed manure or compost to a 
depth of two and half or three feet, are both excellent 
modes of preparing the ground for trees. The rapid 
growth and the large and delicious fruit that result 
from it, afford, more than full compensation for the 
cost of such preparation. But many cannot afford, as 
they think, to trench an acre of fruit garden, or to dig 
five hundred eight feet holes for an orchard. To such 
we would recommend the mode described by E. A. Me 
Kay, of Naples, N. Y., in the Horticulturist , and 
adopted for his vineyard. The ground first received a 
very deep plowing—as deep as practicable without the 
aid of a subsoil plow. It was then measured off into 
strips, of a width equal to the distance of the rows ; 
these strips Were plowed separately, leaving a dead 
furrow in the middle of each—which, by repeated 
plowings, were deepened into the yellow subsoil nearly 
two feet. With a stout team and scraper, holes were 
excavated along these broad and deep furrows, six feet 
wide and eight feet in length, leaving the subsoil taken 
from them in the intervening spaces. In this way the 
holes were made rapidly, and at a cheap rate, and the 
dead furrows furnished a channel for their drainage, 
by loosening the subsoil. When the soil is compact 
clay, such a channel is of much importance, and it may 
he kept open for a few years to answer every required 
purpose, by laying a little coarse straight brush along 
the bottom, before the furrow is filled again. This will 
allow all the water to soak away, and prevent the holes 
becoming basins for its retention, which would he par¬ 
ticularly injurious during winter. Many autumn- 
transplanted trees on clay lands are lost by want of a 
simple provision of this kind. 
If a strip of land a few feet wide were subsoiled at 
each dead furrow, it would greatly facilitate the trench 
plowing, and enable the plow to descend to a greater 
depth afterwards. The holes, it will be understood, 
are to be filled with rich materials, well mixed with the 
soil, but never with manure next the roots of the young 
trees. The newly formed fibres of the growing trees 
will reach it in time, and the long and heavy shoots 
thrown out from the tops of the trees, will show just 
when that time is. These holes may he prepared late 
in autumn, for spring use. 
We speak from ample experience yhen wo recom¬ 
mend large holes, such as these, and we know them to 
be the cheapest and speediest mode of getting a largo 
amount of the best fruit from young trees. Nor have 
wo ever found in the least degree, the evil which some 
have anticipated, namely, a sudden check in the growth 
of the trees, as soon as the roots get beyond the boun¬ 
daries of the holes. Large trees in a vigorous state 
of growth and widely rooted are not so easily affected 
in this way, as smaller ones, especially if they stand 
upon ground kept well cultivated. If the intervening 
spaces are subsoiled and well manured some years af¬ 
ter the orchard is set out, they will be freshly fitted for 
the extending roots, in a better manner than if the 
whole had been enriched at once years before, and the 
fertility partly expended before the net-work of fibres 
had extended over the whole surface. 
The Horticulturist for November 
frontispiece, the Doyenne d’Ete Pear. 
