35S BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch.XXXI. 



not, therefore, be planted so deep in the ground as to remove the roots 

 from their immediate contact with the upper soil, but should be placed 

 midway between the upper and the lower strata ; or, in common cases, at 

 the depth of six or eight inches. A mistaken notion prevails among many 

 persons, that trees which are planted thick screen each other, and are not so 

 liable to have their boughs broken as those which stand wide apart. Yet 

 the fact is otherwise ; for wherever trees stand thick, they not only draw 

 one another up weakly, and consequentlv with less power to withstand 

 sudden gusts of wind, but the closeness of the rows occasions currents of 

 air, which thereby acquire such force as frequently to fracture their boughs, 

 and sometimes even to tear them up by the roots. Added to which is the 

 fact, that if permitted to stand too close together, their branches overhang 

 and smother each other, and the fruit neither acquires the same flavour, nor 

 does it ripen so early as when they are allowed more room ; for nothing 

 operates more powerfully in bringing plants to perfection than light, heat, 

 and air. The most experienced gardeners, therefore, are of opinion, that at 

 least forty feet should be allowed between orchard trees of the common 

 description, when come into full bearing *j but as they will produce a good 

 deal of fruit before they can interfere injuriously with each other, they may 

 be planted at half that distance, or even in rows at thirteen feet apart from 

 each other, with intervals of twenty feet between the rows, and afterwards 

 thinned out as they grow large. The quincunx is the preferable order of 

 arrangement, as affording more air and light to the trees than when they 

 are placed in lines. Dwarfs, intended for exposed situations, or in the 

 immediate neighbourhood of the sea, may be planted closer together, and 

 should not be allowed to exceed four feet in height to the first limb, and if 

 much exposed to the winds, the lower the better ; but trees planted in farmers' 

 orchards, where cattle are permitted to range, should have the first branches 

 full six feet high upon the stem. 



In 'preparing the ground for planting, the first point is to see that it be 

 well fenced with both hedge and ditch, m order not only to guard against 

 pilferers, but to form a screen to shelter the young trees, as well as to assist 

 in drainingthe land; which objects may be gained by cutting rubble drains 

 into a ditch of three or four feet deep on the outside of a bank raised to 

 a corresponding height, and planted with white-thorn for a hedge-row. 

 Various methods are then resorted to for getting it in order for the recep- 

 tion of the plants, of which those most commonly in use are those stated 

 by Mr. Main, as either by trenching it, in the following manner, wholly 

 with the spade, fifteen inches deep, or with the trenching plough. " This 

 trenching is particularly necessary when the orchard is not intended to be a 

 meadow or pasture. If the soil be thin, it may be ploughed into ridges six 

 yards wide, twice gathered, which will give a sufficient depth of mould on 



* Trans, of the London Hort. Soc, vol. i., p. 39, In Herefordshire, the practice, on 

 high grounds and shallow soils, is to allow twelve yards between each row, and six 

 between each tree ; but in low and sheltered situations, twenty-four yards between each 

 row, and eight yards between each tree, are not considered too much. — Duncumb's Sur- 

 vey, p. 83. Malcolm, who was an experienced nurseryman, says, "The smallest growing 

 trees should be planted at forty feet, and so increase to eighty feet, as the size of the 

 kind is known to advance.'' — Comp. of Mod. Husb., vol. iii., p. 285. In Clydesdale 

 they are, however, planted, in many cases, so close as twenty-two feet in the rows, by 

 eleven between the trees, and the latest improvement in the practice is thirty feet by 

 fifteen. — Quart. Journ. of Agric, N. S., vol. iv., p. 826. That of Devonshire is from 

 twenty-five to thirty feet apart, and great improvements have been made on both the pro- 

 duce and the quality of the cidej by thinning all those orchards in which the trees had 

 been plauted too close. — Vaucouver's Survey, pp. 236, 239. 



