The Lambertville press. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1858-1???, 1858-11-04
Fruit Planting.

After the middle of October and on till the
middle of November, is the best time for all
sorts of Fall planting Of fruit or other trees
with but few exceptions.
In tie first place, if you bug your trees, and
the n9Fsery from which you get Them is near
at hakd, go and see to taking up the trees your
self I Insist on every tree being taken up prop
erlyi with good supply of unbroken roots, fine
as well as coarse !; and if a set of needless, OBJ
stinate men are set to do the work. and will not
take them out properly, which is sometimes the
case in the hurry of the season, just refuse to
take them at all, and insist on good trees, if such
{. are what you buy and pay for. Or, if you send
! for your trees, and find, on unpacking them,
some are defective in either root, trunk or top,
throw them aside at once They will either not
grow, or make unsatisfactory things when
trrown. These should be deducted from your
Nbill-but if not, better lose them at the first
4han lose your labor and time in trying to cult
Syate at all what will never be satisfactory.
8 MSecondlv Plant none but good, well tried
Sretes Of whatsoever kind you get, unless you
: choose to experiment with a new thing. We
have known almost whole orchards which had
Mto be revoked with other established varieties,
4 because some enthusiastic man had recommended
a few particular varieties which had been quite
successful in distant locality, and in differ
ent SOIL In this regard we speak principally
of the tree fruits, as apples, pears, peaches,
plums and cherries. The SMALL or shrub fruits
usually being more universal growers than the
others.
:. Thirdly. Never plant in poor land nor in
an unprepared soil You might well take a
thrifty sucking calf from its dam, and turn it
upon a lean pasture, and cold water, and ex-
pect it to grow, as to lift tree from the highly
cultivated soil of nursery, and set it out with
its roots to feed on q leechy gravel, hungry
loam or tenacious clay. Young trees, in or
der to grow, must have Free warm rich soil
for three or four Of their first years. When
well started, they VIII provide for themselves
better but good ground for their extending
roots, they should have, always. There ore
lands large bodies Of them and pretty good
farming lands too, for some crops, utterly unfit
for extensive orcharding, and on which orchards,
with ever so much cultivation, will never pay.
So reject such land altogether, or plant but few
trees on it, if you have no other, and then only
flor family use Natural orchard land - and
there are wide tracts of such in various locali-
ties-is ALWAYS to be sought if fruit growing
is to be your business, and we will briefly de-
scribe it.
First: An elevated locality, free from late
and early frosts.
Second: A porous, grayeIy, sandy, or clayey
loan, having plenty of lime, or potash, produc-
tive in grass, corn, and potatoes where no
water stands, even if the ground be level; having
natural drainage of itself Gently rolling
land is the finest for orchard purposes
Third: soil sufficiently fertile in itself to
give force to the trees without perpetual tinker
ing with manures to coax them into growth, and
bearing In some cases artificial draining and
manuring may be resorted to on limited scale.
We refer to the best natural lands for growing
largely.
Fourth: Cultivate the orchard with any sort
of crop You like, for single season, provided
the soil is sufficiently strong for the crop to be
good one the only condition being, that you
do not iniure the trees by the pillow, harrow, or
whppletrees, or yokes of the teams while work
ing the ground and ALSO that the soil for three
or four feet around the trees is kept clear of the
growing crops.
Fifth: We don't recommend laying down or
chards into moving grass, for hay, until they
make a growth of six or eight inches diameter ;
nor then, without either mulching them at the
roots for four or five feet, each way from the
stem, or digging round them to keep the ground
loose. let, they may be kept in grass for IKE
pasturage of sheep or swine, if the trunks are
protected SO that the animals will not injure
them, and the grass be not allowed to interfere
with the roots. BY close cropping the grass
and scattering their manure in small quantities
over the ground, the rain readily penetrates te
the roots, and washes in the soakage of the ma.
nure. Besides these, the sheep and pigs pick
up and destroy the windfall fruits, with the
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