324 Planting Truit Trees on •poor Soils. 



worth five thousand arguments or opinions, and those who 

 cannot be satisfied with reasoning may sometimes be convinced 

 by facts. 



All the authors that I have read, who have written on or- 

 chards, have recommended deep soils on shekered places ; but 

 much experience has convinced me that bleak and barren 

 sites, in many instances, will be found equally good, if not 

 better. Some of the most old, healthy, and fruitful apple 

 trees I ever saw grew in an exposed quarry ; where, when 

 they first planted the trees, it is difficult to conceive how they 

 could cover the roots. I have also resided many years in the 

 vicinity of an exceedingly fruitful orchard, situated on a sterile 

 sandy bank facing the north-east, the soil of which was so 

 shallow and poor that common vegetables could scarcely live 

 upon it ; yet the crops of fruit were uniformly fine. I could 

 mention various others, but this may suffice to show that 

 much good may result from planting such places. Many of 

 the isolated cottages of the poor stand upon the sides of glens, 

 where considerable portions of ground lie by them covered 

 with nothing but weeds and brambles, which might be advan- 

 tageously employed as fruit gardens. There are many steep 

 surfaces, old quarries, and rocky places, no matter how bleakly 

 exposed, that cannot be otherwise cultivated, which would, I 

 am confident, make eligible situations for orchards. Trees so 

 circumstanced come into bearing much earlier, live long, and 

 seldom moss or canker. They cannot possibly generate too 

 much sap ; whilst robust trees in rich deep soils are like over- 

 fed human beings, whose impure blood covers their skin 

 with scabs and ulcers. It has been proverbially said of old 

 trees, when they grow weak, they bear themselves to death ; 

 and that they will bring fruit, in defiance of the weather, when 

 strong healthy trees in the same seasons will be quite barren. 

 This arises, in my opinion, from better ripened wood, and, 

 consequently, better farina and parts of fructification ; and 

 not, as frequently supposed, from the actual debility of the 

 tree. 



I have long been satisfied that the blossoms and young 

 fruit of apple and pear trees suffer more from the larva of 

 the Phalas'nae than from wet or frosty weather. These trees, 

 in well sheltered places, are generally found much infested by 

 caterpillars ; whilst, in bleak and exposed orchards, they are 

 comparatively free from them. Apple trees are often greatly 

 injured by the nut bushes and thorn hedges that are planted 

 to shelter them, because they entice Phalaj^iae. I remember 

 some years ago, when passing round the Vauxhall forcing- 

 garden with tlie late Mr. Andrews, the fruit of several pear 



