X 18 ) 



III, — On the Planting, Raising, and After - Management of 

 Orchards, and their various Kinds of Fruits, for Culinary 

 and other uses, considered as Marketable Productions of a Farm 

 adapted to the Counties of Worcester, Hereford, and Gloucester. 

 Bj Clement Cable. 



Worcester Prize Essay. 



In travelling through the cider districts every observant person 

 will be struck with the fact that in the management of our 

 orchards thei'e is a great want of system, and that in many 

 respects there is room for improvement ; and the occasion of 

 the Royal Agricultural Society's visit to Worcester is an 

 opportune moment for directing special attention to such 

 defects. Instead of the pleasing sight of a well-regulated 

 orchard, in which every tree is in its place, the rows coming 

 in line whichever way you look at them, the branches being 

 trained to a good height and kept well pruned, our visitors 

 will remark many specimens planted without order, very seldom 

 pruned, and oftentimes allowed to become so thick, that they 

 get covered with moss and lose their bearing properties many 

 years sooner than they would under proper management. 



In the following remarks it will be my endeavour to carry out 

 the division of the subject proposed in the announcement of the 

 prize : — 



1. The planting of the seed. 



2. Raising the young stock. 



3. The soil, aspect, and circumstances which attend 



successful cultivation. 



4. The after-management, — including planting out, graft- 



ing, pruning. &c. 

 5". The various sorts of trees, with general remarks 

 attending the subject. 



1. Planting the Seed. 



There are almost as many ways of rearing young stocks for 

 an orchard as there are people who attempt it; for, with the 

 exception of nurserymen who make a business of it, you seldom 

 find two men doing it alike. 



The common way amongst farmers is to transplant the young 

 plants that come on the must (or refuse-heap left from the last 

 year's cider-making) to some corner or out-of-the-way plot of 

 ground, where but little attention is bestowed upon them, and 

 they are left to take their chance. Some of the plants make 

 good stocks, but the greater proportion grow into short stunted 



