248 AMERICAN POMOLOGY. 



considerable size. Though much smaller, goats are en- 

 tirely inadmissable, since they not only trim off all the 

 foliage within their reach, but they will also greedily de- 

 vour the bark from the trees, and thus commit sad havoc 

 among them. Sheep, on the contrary, may often be in- 

 troduced into an orchard with advantage, as they will eat 

 off a great many weeds, and thus clear the land of such 

 intruders; but they will also spoil low-headed young 

 trees by eating all the leaves within their reach, and they 

 should never be allowed access to the orchard in winter, 

 at least not while there are any trees remaining with 

 smooth bark, as they will often attack such and strip off all 

 that they can get at : sheep are often very desirable in 

 cider orchards when used to crop off the herbage closely, 

 just before the ripening and fall of the fruit. 



The only domestic animals which should ever be allowed 

 free range in the orchard, are swine, and the different 

 sorts of poultry. All of these will prove really useful in 

 the destruction of vast numbers of the insects that are par- 

 ticularly injurious to our cultivated fruits, and which are 

 often enormously multiplied in our old orchards. Swine, 

 it is true, will sometimes learn to climb small trees that 

 have very low branches, which they break off in their at- 

 tempts to help themselves to the fruit this has been ob- 

 served particularly in peach and cherry orchards. These 

 animals are of use too as earth-workers, when they have 

 not been mutilated, for with their peculiarly formed snouts 

 they will turn over a large extent of the surface, while in 

 pursuit of the larvae and pupae of many of the destructive 

 insects, that in such stages of their existence occupy the 

 soil beneath our fruit trees; in this manner, swine are 



