HOW TO GROW GOOD ORCHARDS. 3S3 



plant even in an unfavourable district, instead of, as is 

 generally sought after, trees from a poor soil, we arc 

 glad to have our opinion fortified by a successful 

 practical grower of fruit trees, whose samples of young 

 stock in apple trees, as we have seen them exhibited 

 in Yeovil market, are patterns of healthiness in bark 

 and models of form. The cultivator to whom we 

 refer is Mr. J. Scott, whose name and place we have 

 before mentioned. He says, in his Descriptive Cata- 

 logue of Eruit Trees : — 



There remains one thing the writer would especially guard intend- 

 ing planters against; that is, be careful never to purchase trees off a 

 poor soil. I know this is heterodox; but many years' experience has 

 taught me the fallacy of the popular dogma, i. e., " Get your trees off 

 poor soils, as they will be hardier, and endure the storms better." I 

 could show examples, in numbers, in my nursery, where the trees 

 came from one of the so-called poor soils, that never will be anything 

 like healthy trees. They were hide-bound and checked in their 

 natures when I received them, and I believe will ever remain so, less 

 or more. A genial, moderately rich, and naturally good soil is the 

 soil I would choose my trees from. 



Experience and observation, both in the garden 

 and the orchard, fully confirm us in this view of the 

 case, and we would therefore only add to the direc- 

 tion, " Get your trees from moderately rich soil," 

 that of, " Plant them in a soil of the like kind ;" for if 

 trees be brought from a poor soil, not fit for them, to 

 a poorer, they will certainly not succeed, and indeed 

 the choice of poor land for orchard growth will be 

 seen to end in disappointment. 



In planting apples we should choose a mixture of 

 several of the best sorts, and it is recommended that 

 some should be sour; but we prefer to have those 

 that produce a juice of high specific gravity, though 



