448 
STATE HORTICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 
growth, beyond the limit of a healthy ripening and perfection 
of wood necessary to endure the severe changes of winter. 
These two points fixed, we can readily adapt our practice to 
secure the desired end, by choosing such locations as have had 
their strata of soil resting upon a bed of gravel, or rock, so that 
there may be a perfect drainage to the surface and subsoil. 
In case this may not be, then to the highest ground and best 
natural drainage attainable add surface-ridging by successive 
plowings before planting. Plant upon the crown of the ridge, 
and preserve these ridges by all the after-culture. To this add 
under-drainage of all lands that do not readily permit the 
water to pass through them, and subsoiling all the spaces not 
occupied by the roots of the tree, every five years after plant¬ 
ing, not omitting to subsoil, in the most thorough manner, the 
whole ground before planting. 
Soils retentive of water must be well drained to the depth 
the tree roots are expected to go, and is as necessary for the 
light-bottomed prairies as for the clay banks ol the timber 
land. It is not a defect in the soil, as is often the case in 
many of our sandy districts, that stand in the way of perfec¬ 
tion in fruit-growing on the prairie, but "an excess of. a good 
thing. Therefore the excessive and prolonged growth must 
be prevented. 
The prairie planter has been too long in ignorance of the 
wants of the fruit trees. In fact many former teachers in our 
profession have said, in good faith, “ that the s*^! that 
would grow good corn, was good for the apple,” but dear experi¬ 
ence has taught us that too much of a good thing may become 
an injury, by absolutely preventing the first condition of hard¬ 
ihood, maturity. 
Among the artificial means of securing matured wood 
growth, the most practicable is that of root-pruning in early 
autumn. This secures a partial disconnection of the trees 
from that soil, and a ripening of the young wood. But as this 
is practical only with young trees in the nursery, or in the 
amateur’s garden, we must look to the two grand natural 
means of securing the desired end, found under the head of 
