Of Orchards. 459 



1 2. Distance and Mode of Planting. In Devonshire, orchard 

 trees are small, and are seldom found standing at a greater 

 distance than sixteen feet from each other. In some places 

 their branches are so interlocked, intermixed with dead wood, 

 and covered with moss, that the fruit is hardly visible ( 46 ). 

 To remedy this objectionable practice, it is recommended, 

 that the trees should be planted at sixty feet every way from 

 each other, by which means they become productive, and the 

 pastures suffer but little injury. The desire of having a great 

 deal of fruit, on little ground, is the cause of planting too 

 close; but by this method, the intended object is defeat- 

 ed ( 461 ). 



In the grass grounds of Gloucestershire, and arable fields 

 of Herefordshire, twenty yards is the usual distance ; some- 

 times even twenty-five ; a chain, or twenty-two yards, is a 

 proper medium ( 462 ). Young trees ought not to be planted 

 in the same spot whence the old ones were removed. The 

 roots of the old tree are the habitations of multitudes of worms 

 and grubs, and they should be carefully removed, otherwise 

 they will do serious damage to the young trees. 



3. Rent. The orchards in Somersetshire let from L.3 to 

 L.6 per acre ( 463 ). In Hertfordshire the rent is about L.4 

 per acre. They are generally under grass, and fed off with 

 sheep ( 464 ). At Coldstream, in Scotland, an orchard is let Tor 

 21 years, at L.6 per acre for the first seven, and L.7 for the 

 remaining fourteen years ( 465 ). In the west of Scotland, the 

 rent is still higher, varying from L.6 to L.12, and sometimes 

 it is as high as L.I 6 per statute acre ; but the produce is sold, 

 as fruit, to an extensive manufacturing district, and not con- 

 verted into cider ( 466 ). 



4. Produce. In orchards, a full crop once in five years, 

 and an average crop once in three years, are as much as can 

 fairly be expected ( 467 ). This is partly owing to the uncer- 

 tainty of the weather, at the season of flowering, and partly to 

 the trees becoming exhausted, and requiring repose. 



In Devonshire, the average produce of an orchard is reck- 

 oned at 3f of a hogshead per acre per annum. The average 

 price at the press is 50s. consequently the average produce of 

 an acre is about L.8, 10s. per annum ( 468 ). 



In Herefordshire, from 24 to 30 bushels of apples will make 

 a hogshead of cider, or 110 gallons. Twenty hogsheads of 

 cider have been made from an acre. This is only at the rate 

 of 40 trees per acre, and half a hogshead per tree. The ave- 

 rage price of cider is from 25s. to two guineas per hogshead. 



The entire produce of four counties, ( Gloucestershire, Mon- 



