304 PYRUS MALUS. 
With regard to the aspect best adapted to orchards,, the surface, in general, 
should be more or less undulating, and at the same time, sheltered from the 
extremes of heat and cold; and it has often been remarked, that abrupt acclivi- 
ties, which are too steep for tillage by the plough, or for the pasturage of heavy 
cattle, have been more certain in the production of fruit. Very open, or very 
elevated, exposed situations, as well as the bottoms of deep-sunk valleys, are 
alike unfavourable to the perfection of orchards. The former, from the low tem- 
perature and the violence of the winds, and the latter, from the liability to cold 
fogs and late vernal frosts, at the time the trees are in blossom, often, in one fatal 
night, utterly destroy the husbandman's hopes. A severe frost in early autumn, 
in a single night, may prove equally fatal to the tender flower-buds, in the latter 
situation, or, if not fatal, sufficiently injurious to impair their vitality, and render 
them unfit to withstand the cold of the ensuing winter ; and, should they escape 
and put forth the following spring, the fruit will be knotty, blotched, and unfair. 
In planting an orchard, therefore, in Britain, or in the northern parts of Anglo- 
America, the site should not be chosen 
" In lowly vale, fast by a river side,' 
nor, on the contrary, at an elevation too much exposed, but on moderately shel- 
tered southern slopes, and where choice will further permit, inclining rather to 
the east than to the west. Planting the rows in a northerly and southerly direc- 
tion, is thought to be advantageous, in order that the trees may derive the great- 
est benefit from the sun. But in the middle and western sections of the United 
States, more especially if the locality be in the region of large bodies of water, a 
northern exposure has proved to be decidedly more certain in producing fruit, 
than slopes inclining towards the south. 
Propagation and Management. The Pyrus malus, and all its varieties, may 
be propagated from seeds, by grafting, or inoculation, and by cuttings and lay- 
ers. It is a prevailing opinion in England, that the hardiest and best stocks are 
those which are raised from the seeds of the wild crab, (P. m. acerba,) and Mr. 
Knight recommends that the pips should be taken from the fruit before it is 
pressed. The mode practised in the Goldworth nursery, where fruit-tree stocks 
are raised on a more extensive scale than anywhere else in Britain, is to gather 
the crabs when they are fully ripe, and to lay them either in a heap to rot, or to 
pass them between two fluted rollers, and then to press out the juice, which is 
thus converted into an inferior kind of cider, and afterwards to separate the seeds 
from the pomace by maceration in water, and sifting. It is the opinion of many 
persons, both in Europe and in America, that it is of little consequence whether 
they are particular in the selection of seeds for sowing, from the fact that the fruit 
of trees raised from pips of the same apple differ both from the parent tree and 
from each other. But let it be considered that, when these variations take place, 
they may not always tend to deteriorate the fruit, but may often result in an 
exchange of one good quality for another, or may perhaps even exhibit improve- 
ments in the qualities. For instance, we may, at least, expect to obtain early 
fruit from the seeds of that which is early, and from those of late fruit the 
reverse ; and by parity of reason, from sweet or sour, from juicy or dry fruit, we 
may also expect to obtain seedlings that will, in a considerable degree, corres- 
pond to their origin a result, which it may often be an object for the cultivator to 
secure. Indeed, if it be true, that it is of " little consequence" what kind of pips 
we employ, there certainly can be no detriment in sowing seeds of good fruit ; and 
this, we conceive, will be a sufficient hint for the prudent nurseryman to observe 
The pomace, therefore, should be obtained from the apples of healthy and vigor- 
ous trees, and should be thickly strewed, and covered with earth, in shallow 
Tenches about eighteen inches apart, so as to admit of the young plants being 
