30 3fanagement of Orchards. 



soils, and where quantity rather than quality is desired, in con- 

 sequence of the certainty of getting a crop every other year. 

 Many of the sorts here mentioned have three or four different 

 names in different districts ; and some of these are the same sort 

 only changed in name, form, and character by change of district. 

 The finest class of fruit-trees I have ever met with are in the 

 parish of Monkland, near Leominster, where it is quite the 

 exception to be able to reach the fork, or part where the branches 

 leave the trunk, and the trees attain a " large size. Near the 

 Rectory is a remarkably fine pear-tree orchard ; indeed through- 

 out the parish the fruit-trees are very large, kind, and healthy. 

 But although each sort has its own characteristics of growth and 

 stature, the size of the tree depends more on the nature and 

 quality of the soil than on these peculiarities. The orchards 

 in Worcestershire seem to get better attention than those in 

 Herefordshire ; and, from the climate being drier, they are not so 

 much covered with moss. I was surprised to see how well they 

 were pruned between Worcester and the parish of Rock, and also 

 in several other places in that county which 1 have had occasion 

 to visit ; but I suppose the less fruit there is grown, the more it 

 is appreciated, and therefore attended to. 



I have not given any account of the diseases of trees, as I do 

 not think there is any cure : prevention is the surest plan. Be 

 sure not to graft from cankered wood ; and the better to insure 

 this, cut the grafts yourself, or see them cut. The blight is not 

 under the control of the farmer ; nor do I pretend to investigate 

 its origin. As it is acknowledged to be the Aphis, or plant-louse, 

 it is certain little can be done in the way of prevention ; for 

 in a few days after an east wind has reached us, the trees are 

 covered with myriads, although in some seasons we are quite 

 free.* 



The growth of moss on the orchard-trees is more under our 

 control, as it is favoured by damp and the want of a free circu- 

 lation of air : draining and good pruning will do much to correct 

 this evil ; but it is also a good plan to wash the body and limbs 

 of the tree with a mixture of lime and coAv-dung every two or 

 three years. 



I am fully convinced, that if more attention were paid to the 



* Ou the subject of blight Mr. Belfield states (in the ' Bath and West of England 

 Journal,' New Series, vol. iii. p. 196) that the blight is the I'esultof a check in the 

 sap caused by a sudden change in the atmosphere. My own observation tends 

 to confirm this view rather than that of Mr. Tyrrell, who, in vol. v. p. 325, of the 

 same Joiirnal, states that it is not always the aphis, but sometimes a black grub, 

 then a green one, at other times a striped one, that infests the trees. But these 

 grubs do not generally come till after the leaves are on the trees, consequently the 

 damage is not so wholesale. 



