APPLES AS BUSHES FOR MARKET GARDENS. ^3 



over to a depth, of twenty inches (if very poor and ex- 

 hausted, from thirty to forty tons of manure may be 

 forked in) — not more, as trees such as I have recom- 

 mended, viz., pears on the quince stock and apples on 

 the English Paradise stock, do not root deeply — this 

 ought to cost £6 13s. 4d. The annual expenses are 

 forking the surface in spring, £1 6s. 8d., and hoeing 

 the ground, say four times during the summer, £1 4s. 

 I give the amounts paid here for such work. Then 

 comes the summer pinching of the shoots by a light- 

 fingered active youth, and this may, at a guess, be put 

 down at £1, making the aggregate annual expenses 

 £3 10s. 8d., or, say £4 per acre. The large return 

 will amply afford this outlay, even adding, as we 

 ought to do, the interest on capital, and rent. 



It will be seen that what I propose is in reality a 

 Nursery Orchard which may be made to furnish fruit 

 and trees for a considerable number of years. To 

 fully comprehend this, we must suppose a rood of 

 ground planted, as I have described, with 1,210 bush 

 apple trees. In the course of eight or ten years, half 

 of these, or 605, may be removed to a fresh planta- 

 tion, in which they may be planted 6 feet apart ; they 

 will at once occupy half an acre of ground. At the 

 end of sixteen* or eighteen years, every alternate row 

 of trees in the first plantation — the rood — will require 

 to be removed, which will give 302 trees to be 

 planted, 6 feet apart, leaving 303 in the original 

 rood. The 1,210 trees will, by this time, occupy one 

 acre of ground at 6 feet apart. With proper summer 

 pruning or pinching, they will not require any further 

 change, but continue to grow and bear fruit as long 



