VI. TRAINING AND PRUNING. 



lave as straight trunks as the oaks in the weald of 

 Surrey, if this method of planting orchards were pur- 

 sued. But it will be objected, how are these trees to 

 be protected from cattle during their growth ) Why, if 

 you must have the pasture, and still wish to have 

 straight-trunked, wide-spreading, healthy and durable 

 trees, you must surround each of them with an effectual 

 fence to prevent the possibility of cattle reaching either 

 trunk or branches. It is a great object to have a good 

 orchard, or it is not : if it be, then this expense is not a 

 thing to be thought of ; and, if it be not, why plant 

 any trees at all ? The truth is, however, that, if you 

 reckon the expense of great trees, the stakes and the 

 bandages, the loss of many of the trees, and the bushes 

 or other miserable protections, which, after all, you re- 

 sort to, and are compelled to resort to to keep the sheep 

 from barking the trunks, or the cows from rubbing them 

 to pieces -, and particularly if you reckon the loss that 

 you sustain in the tardy arrival of the crop j if you reckon 

 these expenses and these losses, they very far exceed 

 in amount the expenses of the way that I recommend. 

 The usual practice in America very much resembles 

 the practice here, and is attended with mucn about the 

 same consequences. Those who do the thing well there, 

 break up the pasture, and cultivate grain of different 

 sorts, or Indian corn, until the trees have attained a size 

 to set all cattle at defiance. The finest orchard that I 

 ever saw belonged to Mr. PLATT in the township of North 

 Hempstead in Long Island. The rows of trees were at 

 about thirty feet apart, and the trees at about 

 twenty-five feet apart in the "row, the trees of one 

 row placed opposite the intervals of the other row. This 



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