AN ORCHARD. 219 



that the stone floor of the narrow hall was a step below the street 

 and general surface of the groiyid outside. The kitchen, to 

 which we were at once conducted, was a large square room, 

 lighted by a single broad window, and having a brilliant display 

 of polished metal utensils upon and about a great chimney, all as 

 neat and nice as a parlor. " The huge oak table's massy frame 

 bestrode the kitchen floor;" a linen cloth was spread upon it, 

 and coarse but excellent wheat bread, butter and cheese, brought 

 from the pantry, and cider and perry from the cellar. The cider 

 was "hard" enough; the perry, (fermented juice of pears,) a 

 beautiful, bright, golden liquid, tasted much like weak vinegar 

 and water. We had entered the district of cider and apple-trees, 

 for these liquors were home-made, and the first extensive orchard 

 that we have seen, adjoined the rear of the house : during the 

 rest of our day's walk the road was frequently lined with them 

 for long distances. 



The trees, in a considerable part of this orchard, were of every 

 age, and stood very irregularly at various distances from each oth- 

 er. It appeared as if when an old tree was blown down, or be- 

 came worthless from age and decay, and an unshaded space was 

 thus left, or likely to be, two young trees were planted at a little 

 distance on each side of it, and thus perhaps the orchard had 

 been renovated and continued on the same ground for several 

 generations. Two hundred years ago it was considered that 

 "the best way to plant an orchard is to set some kernels of the 

 best and soundest apples and pears, a finger deep, and at a foot 

 distance, and to leave the likeliest plants only in the natural 

 place, removing the others only as time and occasion shall re- 

 quire." The orchards of the Rhine, at the present day, in which 

 apple, pear, cherry and nut-trees are intermingled, seem to 

 have been planted with as little regard to regularity of distance. 

 The grafts were commonly inserted at from six to eight feet from 



