SELECTION OP FRUIT TREES ADAPTED FOR AN ORCHARD. 40 5 



Mulberries will likewise fruit well in sheltered localities. Only two 

 varieties, the black and large white fruited, are grown. 



The Prolific is far superior to the common Walnut, inasmuch as 

 it bears freely, even in a young state. 



There are a great many varieties of Cob-nuts and Filberts. Probably 

 the following are among the best : The red and white skinned Cob- 

 nuts, Lambert Filbert (Kentish Cob), Purple Filbert, Prolific, or 

 Northamptonshire, and the thin-skinned Cosford. 



Training. All the trees may be allowed to take their natural shapes, 

 taking care, by pruning them for some years after they are planted, to 

 give their main branches an upright direction, diverging from the main 

 stem at an angle not greater than 45, that they may be the better able 

 to support a load of fruit. With many kinds, however, such is the 

 divergent or pendulous character of the branches that this direction 

 cannot be given to them, in which case the object should be to increase 

 the number of main branches so as to lessen the load to each. This is 

 particularly necessary in the case of apples and pears. 



Culture of the Soil. Where fruit is the main object, the soil ought 

 never either to be cropped with vegetables or laid down in grass, 

 because in both cases the trees are deprived of nourishment. In the 

 case of grass, air is excluded ; and in orchards where culinary vege- 

 tables are grown, the roots are prevented from coming up to the surface 

 and, being forced into the subsoil, feed there on a more watery nutri- 

 ment, which produces shoots of spongy wood without blossom-buds and 

 in many cases infested with canker. Where the surface is kept in grass 

 there is less danger from canker and spongy shoots, provided the trees 

 have been planted on hillocks ; but in this case, from want of nourish- 

 ment, the fruit will be smaller and less succulent. If, however, the soil is 

 naturally good, and occasionally manured on the surface, more and 

 better flavoured fruit will be produced in such an orchard than in one 

 cropped with culinary vegetables. As no orchard can be pastured 

 unless each separate tree is enclosed, which, where the ground is 

 properly covered with trees, would probably cost more than the 

 pasture is worth, it will in general be found better, where grass 

 must be introduced, to mow it and supply manure, till the stems of 

 the trees are so large as to be able to protect themselves. It is almost 

 unnecessary to observe, that as soon as the branches of the trees ap- 

 proach within two feet or three feet of each other, the branches of the 

 temporary trees should be shortened in, and soon after removed by 

 degrees, so as at all times to leave a clear space of five feet or six feet 

 round the head of every tree. 



