ORCHARDS. 141 



CHAPTER XIV. 



OF ORCHARDS. 



THESE are generally composed of apple, pear, 

 peach, and cherry trees. The apple has been known 

 from the most remote antiquity, and, from the names 

 given to it, would appear to have been a native of 

 many different countries.* 



About the close of the 15th century, the varieties 

 of this fruit in Europe were multiplied to the num- 

 ber of forty-six,! and it is not to be doubted but 

 that four additional centuries have much increased 

 this amount. While, however, the line was length- 

 ening in this direction, it was shortening in another ; 

 for, according to the philosophy of the present day, 

 vegetables, like animals, perish not only individu- 

 ally, but by whole races. J 



The uses of the apple are various. Besides those 

 of the table, it yields the well-known liquor called 

 cider, which is again convertible into brandy. We 

 have, in our country, orchards which annually pro- 

 duce from five to eight hundred dollars. In the 

 view of profit, therefore, fruit is an important ob- 

 ject to the agriculturist.^ 



* The Syrian, Scanian, Pelusian, &c. About one hundred 

 years before Christ, the Romans began to call them after par- 

 ticular men who had been instrumental in removing them ; as 

 the Appian, or Pomme D'Apiof the French, after Claudius Ap- 

 pius. 



f See Olivier de Serres. 



j See Davy's Elements. 



One of the most important uses of the apple in the present 

 day, and to which it was not formerly applied, or but partially, 

 is the feeding and fattening of pigs and other farm-stock. For 

 this purpose alone, apple-orchards now constitute one of the 

 most profitable objects of farm culture. J. B. 



