184 PERMANENT PLANTATIONS. 



comparatively unproductive. As a generai thing, how- 

 ever, taking the markets as they ai'e, the great bulk of 

 consumers preferring fruit of tolerable good quality and 

 moderate prices to the very best at twice or three timea 

 the ordinary piice, the most profitable varieties Avill b(? 

 those that can be produced at the least expense, provided, 

 always, that they be good ; for fruits of a decidedly in- 

 ferior quality, wliatever may be their other merits, are 

 wholly unworthy of cultivation for the market. Another 

 thing is the selection of varieties that succeed best in the 

 locality where they are to be cultivated. A variety that 

 succeeds remarkably well in any particular locality should, 

 other things being nearly equal, be cultivated largely. 

 The JSTeiotoion Pippin apple, for instance, is a profitable 

 orchard fruit on Long Island and on the Hudson ; but in 

 Western New York no system of management would 

 make it yield one-fourth as much net profit as the Baldwin^ 

 northern /Sj)i/, Rhode Island Greening^ or Roxbury 

 Russet. Large plantations, for profit, should always be 

 made up of well-proved varieties, that have been tested 

 in the locality, or one similar, in regard to soil and situa- 

 tion. A list of select varieties will be given in a succeed- 

 ing and separate part of the work. 



6th. Selectio7i of Trees. — For the farmer's orchard, 

 where the ground among the trees is to be cultivated 

 mainly with the plow, and occasionally cropped, stand- 

 ard trees, with stems four or five feet in hight, will be 

 the most eligible, and ought to be, at the time of planting, 

 three or four years old from the bud or graft, well grown, 

 with stout, straight, well-proportioned trunks. Low, 

 stout trees are always preferable to tall, slender ones. In- 

 experienced planters are generally more particular about 

 the hight than the diameter of the trunk, but it should 

 be just the reverse. If trees are stout, and have good 

 roots, a foot in hight is comparatively unimportant, un- 

 less to one who wishes to turn cattle into his orchard, and 



