12 ORCHARD SURFACE. 



Credenhill is noted for its Orchards, and their fertihty is due in 

 great measure to the supply of Lime from the Marl or Cornstone, 

 which surrounds this hill, as it does so many others in Herefordshire. 



The Pear-tree is still more hardy than the Apple-tree. The 

 blossoms resist well the spring frost, and the trees bear abundantly. 

 The celebrated variety, Taynton Squashy draws its finest liquor from 

 the heaviest soil ; and that popular Pear, Bare-la7id Fear, takes its 

 name from the coldness and poverty of the soil it grows on. Thus 

 it happens that Perry may be produced to great profit and advantage 

 on many a soil that will scarcely give back the labour spent on it 

 for other purposes. Pear trees are very slow and long lived. The 

 The old proverb says — 



" He who plants Pears 



Plants for his heirs." 



and thus the unselfish patriotism which should plant Perry Orchards 

 is not always to be found. However a good " hit " of fruit in an 

 Orchard of Pears has sometimes been worth the fee simple of the 

 land the trees grow upon. 



Surface. — The question of turf, or tillage, as best adapted for 

 Orcharding has been much discussed ; and pasturage has been 

 commonly favoured under the idea that the soil beneath the trees 

 was thus kept more cool and moist during the heat of summer. This 

 is not the case ; for the crop of pasture, or hay, or green crops of 

 any kind not only require much moisture for their own growth, 

 which they take from the soil, but they also exhale much more 

 moisture during the heat of the day time, compensated for by the 

 dew that falls on them by night ; and thus in both ways the trees 

 are robbed in dry weather of the moisture necessary for their healthy 

 and fruitful growth. 



The old Orchard writers are therefore right in giving preference 

 to tillage, rather than to pasture land, for the Orchard. Thomas 

 Andrew Knight, and most other Herefordshire authorities, think 

 there is no more suitable place for a young Orchard than a 

 Hopyard ; and the most approved method in Kent at the present 

 day, is to cultivate the Orchard as a Hop Garden until such time as 



