A CIDER. ORCHARD 245 



freely of any planter, deceived by the slender girth of the 

 young tree, has set them nearer than a good thirty feet. 

 You walk in a wood when you walk through the orchard, 

 but you walk also between hedgerows and in an open 

 field, where the grass is sweet and green. High &quot; bull 

 finch &quot; hedges surround it ; and birds, which are repelled 

 by a forest proper, gather to this blessed place both to 

 nest and to feed. You hear even at harvest time the 

 hilarious laughter of the woodpecker, the thin autumnal 

 pipe of the robins, and the cry of the tits. You wonder 

 for a moment, so big and bright it looked, whether the 

 missel thrush was not a dove, and the blackbirds nearby 

 are in flocks almost like starlings. 



You may infer the presence of biids from other signs. 

 Many trees bear a girdle of corrugated paper, which is 

 found to be the best trap for some of the worst pests of 

 the apple ; and, indeed, it attracts all sorts of creatures, 

 including the furtive earwig or &quot; ere-wiggle &quot; that de 

 lights in darkness. The purpose of the paper bands has 

 been discovered by the woodpeckers, both green and 

 spotted, which abound in the district ; and the tits follow 

 suit. Any band left in position for a few weeks is freely 

 punctured, as a starling punctures the lawn, or even torn 

 to ribbons by the insect-hunters. They discover this 

 gift of the cider-orchard keeper as surely as the green 

 finches gather to the heaps of apple pulp at the very 

 doors of the factory in the town ; and are as welcome 

 thieves. 



The trees in the orchard drop fatness quite literally. 

 You take ladders for other apples, and gather them care- 

 frilly one by one, lamenting earlier windfalls. You wait 

 for the cider apple to drop if it will, without even the 

 encouragement that the &quot; bashers &quot; extend to the walnut. 

 The farmer perambulates his orchard, just tapping this 



