38 THE ORCHARD. JAN.] 



the two last months, you will find ample instructions, both for pre- 

 paring the ground, and planting the various kinds of fruit-trees 

 above mentioned. 



THE ORCHARD. 



THE Orchard is a department consigned entirely to the growth of 

 standard fruit-trees, for furnishing a large supply of the most useful 

 kinds of fruit ; in which you may have as standards, apple, pear, 

 plum, cherry, peach, apricot, quince, almond, and nectarine trees ; 

 also mulberries, filberts, medlars, and berberries ; Spanish chesnuts, 

 and English walnuts ; which two latter, are more particularly appli- 

 cable for the boundaries of large orchards, in which they will screen 

 the other trees, from impetuous winds and cold blasts, all of which 

 are to be arranged in rows, at the distances directed in March and 

 October ; in which months you will find ample directions for raising, 

 propagating, and planting, the various kinds of fruit-trees, necessary 

 for all the departments. 



But sometimes, Orchards consist entirely of apple trees, particu- 

 larly when apples are wanted in large quantities, for cyder, or whis- 

 key-making ; and sometimes whole orchards of very considerable 

 extent, of peach trees, when the fruit is designed for distillation ; 

 likewise entire orchards of cherry trees, but particularly within a 

 moderate distance of large cities and towns, where sale can be ob- 

 tained for the fruit ; pear orchards are also extensive where people 

 are in the habit of making perry. 



A general orchard, however, composed of all the before mention- 

 ed fruit-trees, should consist of a treble or more proportion of apple 

 and peach trees, because they are considerably the most useful fruits, 

 particularly the former ; as they, exclusive of their use in distilling 

 and cyder-making, may be continued for table use, in the different 

 sorts, the whole year round. 



The utility of a general Orchard, or Orchards, both for private use 

 and profit, stored with the various sorts of fruit-trees, must be very 

 great ; as well as afford infinite pleasure from the delightful appear- 

 ance it makes from early spring, till late in autumn : in spring the 

 various trees in blossom are highly ornamental ; in summer the 

 pleasure is heightened, by observing the various fruits advancing to 

 perfection ; and as the season advances, the mature growth of the 

 different sorts arriving to perfection in regular succession, from lYIay 

 until the end of October, must afford great delight, as well as profit. 



But the misfortune is, that too frequently after orchards are 

 planted and fenced, they have seldom any more care bestowed upon 

 them. Boughs are suffered to hang dangling to the ground, their 

 heads are so loaded with wood as to be almost impervious to sun 

 and air, and they are left to be exhausted by moss, and injured by 

 cattle, &c. 



By a redundancy of wood, the roots are exhausted unprofitably, 

 the bearing wood is robbed of part of its sustenance, and the natural 



