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before the trees have had time to dry, are very injurious, 

 even to the buds. This cannot be avoided: much however 

 may depend on the strength of the blossoms ; all the assist- 

 ance that art can give in this case is, to keep the trees in a 

 healthy vigorous state, to enable them to throw out strong 

 buds and blossoms ; and by keeping them thin of wood, to 

 give them an opportunity of drying quickly, before the frost 

 sets in. Blights are very often fatal to the vernal blossoms, 

 ;xnd the consequent crop of fruit. Were it not for this enemy 

 invading orchards in May, many persons think there would 

 lie a crop of fruit every year as regularly as there is a crop 

 of corn. Perhaps if trees in the full vigour of their life were 

 to be kept in perfect order, and not suffered to over-bear 

 themselves, this constant fertility might be looked for, if 

 they were not attacked by natural evils ; and perhaps these 

 natural evils might be in some degree mitigated. But when 

 trees are badly planted on an unpropitious soil, or ill-grafted 

 on an infirm stock, have little care bestowed on them to 

 protect them from cattle, and to keep them free from Moss 

 and Misletoe, are suffered to run to unprofitable wood, and 

 when they have a hit, as it is called, or bear a large crop of 

 fruit, it is beaten down with poles or sticks, by which the 

 buds that are forming for the succeeding year are mostly 

 bruised or beaten off; is it any wonder that with all this ill 

 management, neglect, and bad usage, that the crop of fruit 

 should often fail, or that spring frosts and blights should 

 havp their full effect upon the trees so weakened and injured ? 

 It seems rather surprising that, instead of bearing once in two 

 or three years, they should ever bear at all. The term 

 B-light, (see that article,) seems to be vague and indefinite; 

 and whether insects be the cause or effect of it, does not yet 

 seem to be settled. It has however been asserted, that if a 

 piece of mat or white paper be thrown over a tree at night, 

 and examined in the morning, if there has been a blight, there 

 will be little black spots like the point of a pin. They seem 

 lifeless ; but if the sun shine, by twelve o'clock they will be 

 in motion. By next morning they will be gone from the mat, 

 and then, and not till then, they go into the leaves of the 

 trees, where they form nests, and do the mischief. In two 

 or three days after the blight has infected an orchard, the 

 leaves of the trees will be curled. If the inside be examined 

 with a powerful microscope, a thousand small insects will be 

 seen; these will seize upon the half-formed embryo, and 

 destroy it in the midst of its fading leaves. If the blossom 

 be not out, or the fruit formed, when these vermin arrive, 

 they do no injury; but if the young fruit be just formed, and 

 not of sufficient strength to repel the attack, it falls an 

 immediate sacrifice to their depredations. The critical period 

 at which the fruit is subject to the mortality of the blight, 

 lasts only a few days ; and therefore by having orchards in dif- 

 ferent aspects, there will be a great probability that one or 

 other of them may escape it: the utmost assistance that art can 

 afford, is to keep the trees in a state of health and vigour. 

 Smaller insects are hurtful to the leaves, blossoms, and nascent 

 fruit; larger insects devour the fruit in a state of maturity. 

 Apples, particularly cider fruit, are of a texture firm enough 

 to resist their attacks; but in some years wasps devour great 

 quantities of pears ; so that if a price were set in the spring 

 upon every wasp that comes out in May, it might be the 

 means of destroying many nests by anticipation. The Devon- 

 shire orchards are generally situated in valleys, and dips, or 

 hollows, or near houses, and not spread over the arable land 

 and pasture ground as in Herefordshire and Gloucestershire. 

 Some of them lie bleakly exposed to the north ; others in the 

 current of the south-west wind. But those which succeed best 

 are neither exposed to the north-east, nor to the sea-winds from 



the west and south-west. The richest deepest soils appear 

 to have been chosen for orchard grounds; the shallower 

 soils are probably unfit for fruit-trees ; but where situation 

 will admit, such as are encumbered with large stones, with 

 good soils intervening, are singularly eligible. In Kent, par- 

 ticularly about Maidstone, are many small inclosures, from 

 one to ten acres, and somewhat more, planted with fruit of 

 different kinds, for which the rocky soil of the neighbour- 

 hood seems particularly adapted. The best method known 

 there for raising orchards of Apples and Cherries, and plan- 

 tations of Filberts, is to plant them among hops. The constant 

 culture of the land for the hops, with the warmth and shelter 

 they afford the young trees, causes them to grow with great 

 luxuriance. It is a very common practice to plant Hops, 

 Apples, Cherries, and Filberts, all together. Eight hundred 

 Hop-hills, two hundred Filberts, and forty Cherry and Apple 

 trees, to an acre. The Hops stand about twelve, and the 

 Filberts about thirty years: by which time the Apple and 

 Cherry trees require the whole land. Sometimes Apple and 

 Cherry trees are planted in alternate rows, with two rows of 

 Filberts between each row. The method of planting Apple 

 and Cherry trees, is to dig holes about two feet square, and 

 two spits deep, taking out the rock, and turning down the 

 surface of the soil, on which the young tree is placed, and 

 the remainder of the earth is trodden down close about 

 the roots. The trees are supported by stakes until they 

 get sufficient strength not to be hurt by gales of wind. 

 A composition of lime and night-soil is painted on their 

 stems with a brush, which is said to promote not only their 

 growth, but to protect them from cattle. The soil preferred 

 for Cherries is a deep loam upon the rock : if grown by 

 themselves, they are planted from twenty to thirty feet dis- 

 tant, and are put somewhat deeper in the earth than Apples, 

 though in other respects the management is the same. Cher- 

 ries seem to affect a calcareous soil, if we may judge from 

 the size and flourishing state of the Black Cherry in the 

 Chiltern part of Buckinghamshire, on the almost bare chalk- 

 rock. In some parts of Ireland it is the common practice, 

 in planting orchards for Apples for making cider, to set 

 cuttings three or four feet long half way in the ground, of 

 such sorts as grow rough and knotty in the wood. They are 

 called Pitchers, and rarely fail to yield well and soon.' 

 Pruning Orchards. If pruning be judiciously performed, 

 fruit trees will come into bearing sooner, and continue in 

 vigour for nearly double their common age. No branch 

 should ever be shortened, except for the figure of the tree, 

 and then it should be taken off close at the separation. The 

 more the range of branches shoot circularly, a little inclining 

 upwards, the more equally will the sap be distributed, and 

 the better will the tree bear. The ranges of branches should 

 not be too near each other, that the fruit and leaves should 

 all have their full share of sun; and where it suits, the middle 

 of the tree should be so free from wood, that no branch 

 crosses another, but all the extremities point outwards. 

 October or November, or as soon as the fruit is off, is the 

 proper season for pruning. Few men cut true enough with 

 a bill, it is therefore best to take off superfluous branches 

 with a saw, and afterwards to smooth the places with a knife : 

 for it is essential that every branch which is to come off 

 should be cut perfectly close and smooth. The wounds 

 must then be smeared over with a medicated tar. The bark 

 cannot grow over a stump, because there is no power to 

 draw the sap that way; for which reason it is always advis- 

 able to cut a little within the wood. Every branch should 

 be taken off that comes near to the ground, that has received 

 any material injury, where the leaves are much curled, or 



