Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1858-10-23

FRUIT FLANTING.-After the middle of
october, and on till the middle of November.
Is the best time for all sorts of Fall planting
OF Irult or other trees, with the exceptions
stated In another article.
In the first place, if YOU bun vour trees
and the nursery from which YOU get them ia
near at hand, go and see to taking IN the
trees yourself. Insist on every tree being ia
Ken up properly, with good supply of un-
6Fo@e'' roots, fine as well as coarse and if
set OF needless, obstinate men are set to do the
work. and will not take them out properlv
winch 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
detective on either root, trunk. or ton.
throw them aside at once. They will either
not grow, or make unsatisfactory things when
grown. These should be deducted from YOUR
bill, but if not, better lose them at the first
than lose your labor and time in trying to
CULTIVATE at all what will never be satsfacto-
ry.
Secondly, plant none but good, well tried
varieties OF whatsoever kind you get, unless
you choose to experiment with new thing.
We have known almost whole orchards
which had to be e-worked with other estab-
llshed varieties, because some enthusiastic
man had recommended few particular vari-
cites which had been quite successful in a
distant locality, and in different soil. In
TINS regard we speak principally of the tree
fruits, as apples, pears, peaches, plums, and
enerrles-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 as well take
thrifty sucking calf from its dam, and turn
1t upon lean pasture, and cold water and
expect 1t to grow, as to lift tree from the
highly cultivated soil of nursery, and set it
out with its roots to feed on leechy gravel
or hungry loan or a tenacious clay. Young
trees, IN order to grow, must have free,
warm, rich soil for three or four of their first
years. When we'll started, they will provide
for themselves better, but good ground for
their extending roots, they should have, al
ways.
There are 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 for family
use. Natural orchard land-and there are
wide tracts of such in various localities-is
always to be sought, if fruit growing is to be
your business, and we will briefly describe it.
First. An elevated locality, free from late
and early frosts
Second. porous, gravelly, sandy or clayey
loan, having plenty of lime, or potash, pro-
ductive 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. A soil sufficiently fertile in itself to
give force to the trees without perpetual tink-
ering with manures to coax them into growth
and bearing. In some cases, artificial drain
ing and manuring may be resorted to on a
limited scale. We refer to the best natural
lands for growing fruit largely.
Fourth. Cultivate the orchard with any
sort of crop you like, for single season, pro-
vided the soil is sufficiently strong for crop
to be good one the only condition being
that you do not injure the trees by the pillow,
harrow, or whithetrees, or yokes of the teams
while working on 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
orchards into moving grass, for hay, until
they make growth of six or eight inches in
diameter; nor then, without mulching them
to keep the ground loose. Yet, they NAV be
kept in grass for the pasturage of sheep OK
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 to the
roots, and washes in the soakage of the ma
nure. Beside these, the sheep and pigs pick
up and destroy the windfall fruits, with the
worms infesting them, and thus keep the or
chard and fruits healthy.
Sixth. Never let grown cattle nor horses
into the orchard and keep the branches
trimmed at moderate height from the
ground, to let the wind and air sweep freely
beneath them. Trees require dry, free at
mosphere to thrive and be healthy, particu-
larry fruit trees, which are constitutionally
made to require it.
Seventh. Keep your trees pruned into
free open tops, giving them uniform shape,
as near as possible, and supplied with abund-
ance of bearing wood and for all this but
little pruning or cutting away is necessary
the main requirement being to cut away the
small, thrifty, upright growing limbs. which
are mere suckers to draw off the sap from the
lateral and fruit bearing branches.
Eighth. Let the apple trees stand not less
than thirty-six to forty feet apart. This looks
too distant at first but, rely on it, if planted
at less distance they will be too close when
fully grown, and worth not half so much in
the long run.-Americaa Agricalturist.