'78 
THE ORCHARD. 
grow on well-pruned standards, and all of which 
are exceedingly rich and good, as well as (with 
the exception of the Wine Sour) handsome. 
These we should give just the same distance, 
unless, as we before stated, we were cramped 
for room, (because, if we were, we might plant 
them ten feet apart instead of twenty, they 
would grow for years before they were crowded, 
and particularly as, in- such case, we should 
adopt a different mode of management,) for we 
should with these, as pears and apples, en- 
courage their spreading, rather than growing 
lofty. Again, with regard to cherries, the 
MayDuke, the Kentish, Biggereau, Late Duke, 
Black Eagle, Florence, Morrello, and Circassian, 
all useful or fine eating fruit, we should 
plant them in the same way; and here would 
be all the fruit a family could want from an 
orchard, with the two or three exceptions 
mentioned before. If the orchard were walled 
on the north side, so as to enable us to grow 
the more delicate fruits, or even some of these 
we have mentioned, as wall-trees, we might 
choose from the same authority our selection 
of peaches, nectarines, and grapes. Some of 
these are evidently chosen for their season, 
otherwise, for flavour, there are two or three that 
beat all others. No six peaches will beat the 
Early Avant, Early Newington, Bed Magdalen, 
Boyal George, Noblesse, and Old Newington. 
And the following are the best nectarines: 
Elruge, Red Magdalen, Fanchild's Early, Tem- 
ple's, Late Newington, and Red Roman. These 
might be planted in a border not less than ten 
feet, and better if fifteen feet wide, made up 
of rotten turfs and good loam trenched eighteen 
inches or two feet deep, and laid sloping to 
throw off the wet. They ought not to be nearer 
than ten feet to each other, be planted well up 
on the surface, tap roots cut off, and superfluous 
branches cut right away. We should prefer 
maiden trees ourselves to trained ones, and 
cut them right back, each branch to the two 
or three lower eyes. The growth they made 
the first year would be so under control, that 
we should prefer exercising our ingenuity and 
patience, to distressing a well-trained tree by 
removal, and by allowing it to bear fruit; and if 
not to bear fruit, a maiden tree, cut back, would 
be better, with our care, and beat a trained 
one in two years. However, it is not often we 
can find orchards walled to our hands ; and 
if not, it is neither wise to build, nor desirable 
to have any of these fruits far from the house, 
or the most secure part of the kitchen garden 
or grounds. All the plums we have men- 
tioned would be finer on a wall, perhaps, than 
on standards, and so would the cherries ; but 
as peaches and nectarines will hardly do on 
standards, and must, to be done well, have a 
wall, we have only treated them as wall trees, 
else, for use as preserves, or tarts, in families, 
the nectarine and the apricot will be found to 
do moderately well on well-pruned and well- 
managed standard trees. 
The great object in forming orchards should 
be to give room, and light, and air to the 
trees, and in most cases there might have been 
all this provided for, and perhaps was; for on 
looking at old orchards, it will often be found 
that trees of much younger age than the prin- 
cipal ones have been planted between, simply 
because there appeared to be room, and that 
seems to have been the only object in view 
with some people; so that there were room to 
put in a tree, that is, room for it to stand, they 
seemed not to think about whether the sun 
should ever reach the roots, or even the tree 
itself; and to this injudicious mode of crowd- 
ing, and the neglect of pruning, may be at- 
tributed most of the canker and decay that 
may be found in old establishments. Those, 
however, who take an interest in renewing old 
orchards, should set about it in good earnest 
by first trenching every foot of ground that 
they can turn up, that is to say, between the 
trees ; and they must trench as close up to 
them as the roots will allow ; nor need they 
be very particular about cutting off a few 
roots. It is more than probable that by sacri- 
ficing one or two trees that come in their way 
occasionally, they may clear the vay for a row 
of young trees at proper distances apart ; for 
the ground of old orchards is generally pretty 
good when turned up a couple of feet deep. 
Plant them as we have now directed for new 
orchards, and when a row is complete, measure 
about the intended distance for another row; 
and if there be no means of clearing for it, go 
wider or nearer to find a clear row, and plant 
another, looking to the ultimate removal of the 
old trees altogether. • In this way an old orchard 
may be replanted with young healthy trees, 
though there be no room for them to grow 
above a year or two, and then set about vigo- 
rously cutting in the heads of the old trees, 
even to the removal of three parts of the 
branches, and especially all that obtrude them- 
selves too much towards the new ones ; the 
object of pruning and cutting away the old 
trees so much, is to keep them out of the way 
of the new, without sacrificing them altogether; 
for, as the roots will have suffered by the 
trenching, they require a good deal to be 
cut away, that the rest may bear some fruit 
while the young trees are coming up. In this 
way we do not lose the fruit of the old orchard 
altogether until the new trees begin to bear; 
and it will soon be seen that particular trees 
may be dispensed with altogether ; indeed, 
about the third season, the new trees will have 
made such progress, that the ground, except, 
perhaps, one or two lingering favourites, may 
be cleared altogether. Then the remainder of 
