THE FAILUliE OF ORCHARDS, AND ITS REMEDY. 208 



Apple-trees starved out. That inquirers may perceive 

 what views other writers entertain touching the cause of 

 failure in orchards, we herewith quote from the " Canada 

 Farmer," the editor of which says : It is no uncommon 

 thing to meet with single trees, or even whole orchards, 

 once productive, that have become barren, either yielding 

 no fruit whatever, or a few scrubby specimens mere apol- 

 ogies for the products formerly given. In such cases you 

 will perhaps hear it said that the trees have failed, or be- 

 come exhausted ; whereas the truth is, that the soil is ex- 

 hausted. Such phenomena are viewed "as among the mys- 

 teries of the vegetable kingdom; but they are among the 

 simplest and most easily explained facts to be met with out 

 of doors. It would be difficult to find any thing more ir- 

 rational than the course pursued by many in regard to 

 fruit-growing. A young orchard is planted out, and forth- 

 with sown to a grain crop, in which the trees stand during 

 the summer months, like storks in a rush-pond, their heads 

 just peering over the nodding grain. Year after year a 

 similar course is pursued. The land is expected to bear as 

 much of some sort of crop as though an orchard had never 

 been thought of. After much hard struggling, half the 

 trees, perhaps two-thirds, are found to have survived, and 

 they begin to bear a little fruit. At last, by a stretch of 

 leniency, the orchard is seeded down ; and, after one or two 

 mowings, converted into hard-run pasture. Who ever thinks 

 of manuring an orchard ? or what fool would dream of giv- 

 ing up the land to the trees, and manuring it well, and cul- 

 tivating it thoroughly ? Yet if, after the worst possible 

 usage, the trees do not bear plenty of choice fruit, either 

 the nurseryman is blamed, or the climate is cursed, or, for- 

 sooth, the trees are exhausted ! The theory of rotation of 

 crops, in general farm practice, is based on the fact that 

 constantly growing the same produce exhausts particular 



