Of Orchards. 457 



L.9 : 16 : 8. But it is seldom that such a crop happens above 

 once in three or four years. At 400 gallons, which is con- 

 sidered to be a fair average, the return would be L.6 : 13 : 4 

 per acre, subject proportionably to less deductions. 



If the farmer however, has capital sufficient to retain the 

 produce of his orchard, and suitable accommodation for keep- 

 ing it, until a proper opportunity for a sale occurs, should a 

 bad year take place, the price will be advanced to 8d. or Is. 

 per gallon, and a greater profit, than in the cases above stated, 

 may be obtained. Few farmers, however, have such cellars 

 to keep it in, and all those who have not, must either sell it, 

 or drink it soon after it is made. 



But where farmers reside near a canal or navigable river, 

 the most certain profit arises, by cultivating chiefly the better 

 sorts of apples, and selling the fruit for table use, (the finer 

 kinds for desserts, and the coarser sorts for baking and stew- 

 ing,) instead of converting it into cider. For the same quan- 

 tity of fruit, (eleven seams of nine pecks each), which would 

 fetch L.8, 16s. unground, would only bring, in cider, L.3, 

 15s. ( 45 ). 



It is objected to orchards on large farms, that they are apt 

 to interfere with the more important concerns of husbandry, 

 and to abstract that manure, which ought to be applied to the 

 arable land. The cider system has likewise a tendency to in- 

 troduce a dissoluteness of manners ; nor is cider so wholesome 

 or strengthening as malt liquors ( 4M ). 



But it is contended, that lands in pasture, worth only from 

 12s. to 30s. per acre, would probably be worth L.3 per annum 

 as an orchard; that Great Britain contains many thousand 

 acres, capable of that species of improvement, at a small ex- 

 pense, and within a short period of time ( 45S ) ; and that by 

 increasing the better sorts of fruit, and pursuing a proper 

 system, fruit grounds and orchards might be rendered a source 

 of riches to those districts, where they can be successfully cul- 

 tivated, and, at the same time, would prove a source of bene- 

 fit to the nation at large ( 453 ). Many instances might be ad- 

 duced, where small farmers have been enabled to pay their 

 rents, from the produce of their orchard harvest, where care 

 had been taken, in selecting the most useful sorts of fruit- 

 trees, and properly managing them. 



It is the more necessary to attend to orchards, as in the 

 opinion of one of the ablest naturalists this country has pro- 

 duced, there is no reason to suppose, unless a great change in 

 the heat of our climate should take place, that vineyards will 

 succeed in England ; or that the grape will ever, in such a 

 climate, afford an article, equal in merit, to the produce of 



