AND PRUNING. 259 



diet, rendered orchard fruit necessary. In Hereford, 

 and other western counties of England, orcharding- 

 is an important concern, because cider and perry are 

 the common beverage of the people. This was also 

 the case in most of the middle and eastern counties 

 formerly ; but in these, extensive orchards are gone 

 to decay through sheer neglect, owing to the substi- 

 tution of porter and other malt liquors instead of 

 cider, and consequently making the cultivation of 

 barley upon light land, (unfit for grazing purposes,) 

 much more profitable than a crop of apples or pears. 

 Added to this, the introduction of tea instead of milk 

 diet among the lower orders, has not a little tended 

 to discourage orcharding, (which were also pastures 

 for milch cows,) and cause the neglect of those fruit- 

 trees, which used to be depended on for the drink of 

 the farmer and his family, and which are now said to 

 be wearing out. 



To the foregoing observations on pruning and 

 training fruit-trees, a general remark may be added, 

 viz. : as there are hardly two situations exactly 

 alike in all things, the same rules will not always be 

 applicable. Soil, aspect, climate, and particular varie- 

 ties of fruit will require particular and local modes 

 of management ; and that practitioner, who has the 

 most comprehensive views of the physiology of trees 

 and their culture, and who can divest himself of old 

 rules, (considered by too many as indispensable,) will 

 have the best chance of succeeding in his practice. 

 He will not be cramped by precedents, though recom- 

 s2 



