FRUIT-GROWERS’ REPORT. 
883 
which are planted on the gravelly hills and sharp ridges where 
this formation exists hut sparingly, if at all. 
This last fact would seem to point every man of the least 
reflection to the remedy for his decaying trees; to make a drain 
to let out the water; so that all the trees shall be as well drained 
as are those upon the gravel hills and ridges. This can be done 
in two ways: One is to dig a drain through your grounds under 
every row, and after covering it up, plant your trees over it. 
But this will be attended with more expense than most farmers 
Will submit to, and if there be no other remedy the farmers will 
either plant no trees, or they will continue to plant as they have 
done, and because the trees cannot live under the conditions 
in which they are placed, the blame is laid upon the country and 
the climate, when it ought to be laid at the doors of the men who 
plant the trees. 
There is another method of drainage which in most places 
will be found as full or more effectual than the drain, though I 
do not remember to have heard of its being practiced by any 
one: that is, digging a hole where each tree is about to be 
planted. This can be dug through the formation of which I 
have been speaking in most places, and especially where it is 
not over three feet in thickness. The cost of such an excavation 
can be readily determined, by men who are always demanding 
the amount of the cost, thus: the surface soil must be removed 
by the ordinary process of planting trees; there is then no cost 
for that portion. Below that is a square yard of excavation, all 
of which can be done with a spade, and will take a smart man 
an hour to remove it, and another hour to fill it up. This work 
can be done better and with more advantage weeks or months 
before the trees are planted than at the time of planting. 
The next question is, With what shall the hole be filled? The 
answer will depend on the condition of whether the excavation 
is through the apparent clay formation or not. If through it, 
then I would fill the excavation, if limestones are not at hand, 
with any surface soil which may lay handiest, after placing at 
each angle of a two feet square, a round stick of wood not less 
than four inches in diameter, so that the lower end shall rest on 
