the Mahiiif/ of Cider and Pernj. 
383 
fast by a river's side," nor, on the contrary, at an elevation too 
much ex})osetl. but on moderately sheltered southern slopes, and, 
when choice will further permit, inclining rather to the east than 
to the west; for although a slope inclined to the south-west is 
■wanner than one to the south-east, it generally retains the fogs 
longer, and therefore is more dangerous to the fruit in the spring 
of the year. A situation much surrounded, or closely hemmed in 
by woods or plantations, is almost equally objectionable as a close 
watery bottom, as woods exhale a vast quantity of moisture from 
their leaves, and the fogs produced over them dissipate much 
more slowly than those over open ground. 
Raisiii(j Plants. 
Apple-trees are generally pm-chased from nurserymen, or 
persons who make a particular business of raising them, and who 
sell them at prices varying from 2.v. to 5.s\, according to size and 
quality. They may, however, be raised with great facility by any 
intelligent farmer; and where orchards are much cultivated, con- 
siderable profit might be made by selling them to others. At all 
events, a few young trees should be always coming forward in the 
provident farmer's garden, for the purpose of filling up vacancies 
occasioned by accident or decay. It is a prevailing opinion that 
the hardiest and best stocks are those which are raised from the 
seeds of the wild apple or crab ; and Mr. Knight recommends 
that the pips should he taken from the fruit before it is pressed, 
but the pommey (that is, the pulp after it has been pressed) 
will generally contain a great number of entire seeds. This 
pommey, or that from the apples of healthy and vigorous trees, 
should be thickly laid and covered up in shallow trenches, about 
18 inches apart, so as to admit of the young plants being well 
hoed and hand-weeded in the following summer. Immediately 
after the fall of the leaf in the ensuing autumn, the strongest 
plants might be drawn, and planted 18 inches apart in rows of 
the same distance from each other. The land should have been 
previously trenched, manured, and cultivated for garden produce. 
The remainder should be similarly managed in the following 
year. During their future growth, the ground should be kept 
perfectly clean by repeated hoeings ; and the plants would be 
much benefited by a light forking between the rows. No knife 
should be allowed to approach them in this stage, unless it be to 
shorten a rampant-growing shoot, which may be making too 
strong a diversion from the stem, and not even then if it be more 
than a foot from ihe. ground, at least when it is intended to graft 
the stem ; for every twig and leaf contributes to the growth of 
the root and the stem, the only thing at present to be regarded. 
When the plants are more than half an inch in diameter, at a foot 
VOL. IV, 2 c 
