The tree to be planted should be as young as circumstances will allow. The season is just when the leaves become yellow, or, as early as possible in the spring. The ground being prepared, and the tree taken up, prune the roots with a sharp knife so as to leave none more than about a foot long; and, if any have been torn off nearer to the stem, prune the part, so that no bruises or ragged parts remain.



Cut off all the fibres close to the roots; for, they never live, and they mould, and do great injury. If cut off, their place is supplied by other fibres more quickly, Dig the hole to plant in three times as wide, and six inches deeper, than the roots actually need as mere room. And now, besides the fine earth generally, have some good mould sifted.

Lay some of this six inches deep at the bottom of the hole. Place the roots upon this in their natural order, and hold the tree perfectly upright, while you put more sifted earth on the roots. Sway the tree backward and forward a little, and give it a gentle lift and shake, so that the fine earth may find its way amongst the roots and leave not the smallest cavity.

Every root should be closely touched by the earth in every part. When you have covered all the roots with the sifted earth, and have seen that your tree stands just as high with regard to the level of the ground as it did in the place where it before stood, allowing about 3 inches for sinking, fill up the rest of the hole with the common earth of the plat, and when you have about half filled it, tread the earth that you put in, but not very hard.

Put on the rest of the earth, and leave the surface perfectly smooth. Do not water by any means. Water, poured on, in this case, sinks rapidly down, and makes cavities amongst the roots. Lets in air. Mould and canker follow; and great injury is done.

If the tree be planted in the fall, as soon as the leaf begins to be yellow; that is to say, in October early, it will have struck out new roots to the length of some inches before the winter sets in. And this is certainly the best time for doing the business.

But, mind, the roots should be out of ground as short a time as possible; and should by no means be permitted to get dry, if you can avoid it; for, though some trees will live after having been a long while out of ground, the shorter the time out of ground the sooner the roots strike; and, if the roots should get dry before planting, they ought to be soaked in water, rain or pond, for half a day before the tree be planted.

If the tree be for an orchard, it must be five or six feet high, unless cattle are to be kept out for two or three years. And, in this case, the head of the tree must be pruned short, to prevent it from swaying about from the force of the wind. Even when pruned, it will be exposed to be loosened by this cause, and must be kept steady by a stake; but, it must not be fastened to a stake, until rain has come to settle the ground; for, such fastening would prevent it from sinking with the earth. The earth would sink from it, and leave cavities about the roots.

When the trees are short, they will require no stakes. They may be planted the second year after budding, and the first after grafting; and these are the best times. If planted in the fall, the tree should be shortened very early in the spring, and in such a way as to answer the ends to be pointed out more particularly when we come to speak of pruning.

If you plant in the spring, it should be as early as the ground will bear moving; only, bear in mind, that the ground must always be dry at top when you plant. In this case, the new roots will strike out almost immediately; and as soon as the buds begin to swell, shorten the head of the tree. After a spring planting, it may be necessary to guard against drought; and the best protection is the laying of small stones of any sort round the tree, so as to cover the area of a circle of three feet in diameter, of which circle the stem of the tree is the center. This will keep the ground cooler than any thing else that you can put upon it.

As to the distances, at which trees ought to be planted, that must depend on the sort of tree, and on other circumstances. It will be seen by looking at the plan of the garden that I make provision for 70 trees, and for a row of grape vines extending the length of two of the plats. The trees will have a space of 14 feet square each.

But, in orchards, the distances for apples and pears must be much greater; otherwise the trees will soon run their branches into, and injure each other.