46 THE ORCHARD. [Jan. 



But the misfortune is, that too frequently after orchards are 

 planted and fenced, they have seldom any more care bestowed 

 upon them. Boughs are suffered to hang dangling to the ground, 

 their heads are so loaded with wood as to be almost impervious to 

 sun and air, and they are left to be exhausted by moss and injured 

 by cattle, &c. 



By a redundancy of wood the roots are exhausted unprofitably, 

 the bearing wood is robbed of part of its sustenance, and the natural 

 life of the tree unnecessarily shortened, whilst the superfluous wood 

 endangers the tree by giving the winds an additional power over it, 

 and is injurious to the bearing wood by retaining the damps and 

 preventing a due circulation of air. 



The outer branches only are able to produce fruit properly; every 

 inner and underling branch ought therefore to be removed. It is 

 common to see fruit trees with two or three tiers of boughs pressing 

 so hard upon one another, with their twigs so intimately interwoven, 

 that a small bird can scarcely creep in among them. Trees thus 

 neglected acquire, from want of due ventillation, a stinted habit, 

 and the fruit becomes of a crude inferior quality. 



The trees are very often almost entirely subdued by moss, which 

 kills many, and injures others so much that they are only an incum- 

 brance to the ground and a disgrace to the country. This evil 

 may easily be checked by scraping and rubbing ott' the moss at 

 this season of the year, with a rounded iron scraper, &e., when 

 men have little else to employ them, and only seek work in 

 idle, expensive, and unprofitable amusements. Draining the land, 

 if too retentive of moisture, will sometimes prevent or cure moss, 

 or digging round the trees on the approach of winter, or in spring, 

 and bringing fresh mould, or the scouring of ponds and roads, or 

 the rubbish of old walls, well prepared and pulverized, and laid 

 round them. Whatever contributes to the health of the tree, will 

 cure, or in some degree mitigate, this and other diseases. 



The above considerations ought to induce to an examination of 

 your standard apple, pear, plum and cherry trees, &c, and where 

 found necessary, to thin their branches, scrape and rub oft' moss, 

 cut ott' all dead or irregularly placed limbs and branches, and also 

 any luxuriant unfruitful shoots, and such branches as appear to be 

 in a decaying or cankery state, all of which must be cut ofi' close 

 to where they were produced, or to some healthy leading branch 

 or shoot ; for" the bark cannot grow over a stump, because there is no 

 power to draw the sap that way, for which reason always cut rather 

 a little within the wood. 



Smooth the cut parts, and if the amputations are large, apply 

 thereto a li^ht covering of the medicated tar below mentioned, 

 which is to be laid on with a painting brush; if under an inch in 

 diameter, it is scarcely worth while to go to that trouble, for such, 

 when well pruned, will heal and cover freely. 



Be particular to use a saw in taking oft' all the limbs and branches 

 that are too large for the knife, and smooth the cut parts with either 

 vour pruning knife or a neat draw-knife, which answers better for 

 large amputations. 



