ORCHARD DRAINAGE. 



13 



the fruit trees are large enough to yield a paying crop The trees 

 profit by the high cultivation, and the protection given to the hops. 

 They grow more freely, bear finer fruit, and yield, it is said, a longer 

 keeping Cider. As the trees grow large the hops must be uprooted 

 and the field laid down to permanent pasture. 



In America, roots are almost always grown for the first five 

 years in new Orchards, and the soil deeply ploughed every year at 

 a proper distance from the trees. They consider grain crops as too 

 exhausting and injurious to the soil required for Apples. 



The home Orchard attached to most Herefordshire and Devon- 

 shire farms must be pasturage of necessity, for the great convenience 

 it affords for the ewes and lambs in the spring, and the ordinary 

 tarm animals at all seasons. 



Drainage. — A due amount of moisture in the soil is absolutely 

 necessary for the proper growth of the higher forms of vegetation, 

 but it should not be in excess, and above everything, it must not be 

 stagnant. A want of good drainage is fatal to an Orchard. The 

 temperature of water-logged soil is always low. The warm rains of 

 spring run off the surface, without mixing with the cold water left 

 there by winter ; and it is very late in the year before the sun can 

 lessen its quantity by evaporation, and impart the all essential warmth 

 to the soil. If water moreover remains long stagnant in contact 

 with any vegetable matter it soon becomes impure by the formation 

 of noxious gasses, and is thus rendered positively injurious to the 

 trees growing there. An Orchard in this condition is a miserable 

 sight; the trees are rugged and stunted in growth, their boughs are 

 weak, covered with lichen, or moss, and can seldom produce much 

 fruit ; and yet, for all this, it is a sight by no means uncommon. 



A good Orchard must therefore be well drained by art, if not 

 by nature. The excess of water should flow off gradually, so as to 

 leave the soil porous and ready to receive from the atmosphere 

 quickly its own air and warmth. The roots are thus stimulated 

 early in the season and have time to take up from the soil all the 

 principles necessary for the healthy life and vigorous growth of 

 the trees. 



