Ch. XXXI.] ORCHARDS— PLANTING. 359 



the ridges to receive the trees. Another way is to trench beds eight feet 

 wide for the treesj and prepare the rest of the ground with the plough and 

 harrow, to be sown down with grass-seeds and a single cast of a dwarf- 

 growing oat, in the month of March, after the trees are planted." 



" There is still a cheaper way of planting an orchard on land which is 

 already in turf, — viz., digging, or trunking, pits six feet square for the trees. 

 This is done by first taking off the turf, to be relaid when the tree is 

 planted, stirring the soil in the pits 18 inches deep, and adding, if neces- 

 sary, a barrowful or two of maiden earth, mixed with a little rotten dung, 

 to place the tree in. This plan may be pursued when the soil is of sufficient 

 depth on a gravelly subsoil ; but, if on a clay subsoil, it is the worst way 

 possible ; because these pits become receptacles of stagnant water in wet 

 seasons, and are, of course, injurious to the roots of the trees." 



Whichever mode be adopted, the openings should be first made ready 

 for the plants, which should be carefully taken up from the nursery without 

 topping or injury to the roots ; but if broken or bruised they should be 

 smoothly cut back. In placing them two persons are employed ; one of 

 whom fixes the plant upright in the hole made to receive it, taking care 

 that the roots be regularly divided at equal distances from each other, and 

 pointed outward from the stem without intermixture, as this direction of 

 the extreme points prevents them from robbing each other of nourishment, 

 while the other workman shovels in the mould and treads it firmly upon 

 the root. The ground will settle down after a little time ; it should be at 

 first raised in a small mound around the trees, which would other- 

 wise become sunk in the wet occasioned by the stagnation of the rain in 

 these pits, and they should be securely staked up so as to secure them 

 against the wind. 



When cider is the material object, care should also be taken in planting 

 the orchard to place all the trees of the same sort or quality in rows, by 

 which means, the fruit, ripening together, can more easily be kept separate, 

 milled, expressed, and the juice fermented together: objects of the first 

 consequence with good ciderists, as the mixing of the fruit is found to 

 produce unequal and repeated stages of fermentation ; thus exhausting the 

 strength and proving injurious to the liquor *. 



The best period of planting is between the fall of the leaf and that 

 when the buds expand m the following spring, when vegetation is inani- 

 mate ; or from about the end of October to the middle of February. In 

 our southern counties, where the extreme severity of winter is not much to 

 be apprehended, the autumn is usually chosen ; but in less favoured situa- 

 tions, if the weather be mild, and the early part of the season chosen, the 

 close of the month of January is preferable. 



The age of the plants should not be less than full six years from the 

 sowing of the seed, their heads having been previously formed upon a 

 stem about six feet high ; yet it is the opinion of an experienced orchardist 

 " that the younger and lower the stem, the more likely the trees are to take 

 root, to thrive, and to escape fronVblasts." He, therefore, recommends the 

 shoots to be transplanted yearly in the nursery, and to be finally planted out 

 at four years old from the graft at furthestt. As it is also a material object, in 

 point of produce and beauty, that the stems should be straiglit and clean, 

 thev should, therefore, be kept in that position, by being staked ; and, 

 if cattle be admitted to pasture in the orchard, by having a cradle-fence 



* Devonshire Survey, p. 237. 



t Survey of Cornwall, pp. 95 and 97. 



