3. Where watering is resorted to it should not be upon the surface; especially is this injurious in clay soils. The moisture is immediately exhaled, and the sun hardens the wet earth into a crust, nearly as impervious to light, and air and moisture, as if it were sheet-iron. Let a slight trench be opened, and after the water has sunk away, replace the earth and pulverize it. In this way no baking will take place.
4. But the best method of watering by the root, is that which is technically denominated mulching. Cover the surface of the ground beneath the tree or shrub with three or four inches’ thickness of coarse, strawy manure. If watered through this the earth will not bake; the moisture will not evaporate; the root will be shielded from the sun, and enriched by the infiltration of the juices of the manure.
LABELS FOR TREES.
It is of great importance for every farmer to preserve the names of his fruit-trees; and no amateur cultivator should think himself worthy of a name whose garden and fruit ground is not registered and labelled.
It is best in every case to have a fruit-book, in which should be entered the name of each tree, its place, time of planting, from whom obtained, how old it was from the graft or bud, when set out, its size, condition, etc.
Such a book, kept in the house, is a sure and permanent record of the names of your fruit-trees. Beside this, each tree should have a label attached to it. For, in passing through an orchard or fruit garden, it is desirable to know
the names of trees without the inconvenience of carrying your book under your arm. The labels are for daily use; the book keeps a permanent record, so that if a label be lost the name of the tree does not go with it. It is quite provoking to examine a friend’s premises without being able to learn the name of a single tree. Beside, every cultivator should know the names of his trees as well as of his cattle; otherwise they will get local names, and the same fruit have a new name in each orchard.