118 
THE ORCHARD, ITS SOIL. 
the fruit and its proper fermentation,” are the requisites supremely essential for the production of 
Cider and Perry of the highest quality and excellence. All are right from their experience, 
though all are wrong in the restriction of their views. The careful personal attention of the 
cultivator must be given to each and every one of these points with patience and perseverance 
when it will only remain for favourable seasons to insure success. 
The present condition of the English Orchards is far from satisfactory. They shew sadly 
the result of long continued neglect. It is the object of the present paper to give a brief practical 
review of the requirements for their proper cultivation and management. 
I. THE ORCHARD. 
Soil. —The Apple and the Pear tree are very hardy. They will grow and flourish in almost 
every variety of soil, producing in abundance their most useful fruits. The Apple tree certainly 
prefers a Sandstone wherever it is found, as the Pear tree rejoices in calcareous soil. It has been 
universally observed however that the same trees will produce fruit varying much in size and quality 
on different soils. “Every variety of the Apple” says Thomas Andrew Knight “is more or less 
affected by the nature of the soil it grows upon. On some soils the fruit attains a large size and is 
full of juice, on others it is dry and highly flavoured.” 
When fruit is required for Cider making, the proper quality of the soil on which it is grown 
is all important. As the poet has well said : 
“ Next let the Planter, with discretion meet 
The Force and Genius of each Soil explore; 
To what adapted, what it shows averse : 
Without this necessary care, in vain 
He hopes an Apple Vintage, and invokes 
Pomona’s aid in vain.” (Philips “ Cyder .”) 
Happily however the rough handed experience of every day life has been able to get on in 
advance of Science. The practical farmer has not to wait for the chemist to tell him which of his 
fields are most productive. The dairyman, for example, soon finds out from which of his meadows 
he gets the best milk, the richest cream, and the most valuable cheese ; and his next object is to get 
the best breed of cattle to graze them, or in other words to find the cows that will best perform their 
part in dairy produce. So it is with the Orchardist, the liquor in his vats will soon point out to him 
the particular Orchards which afford him Nature’s best laboratory for the production of the finest and 
strongest Cider ; and his efforts must then be directed to get them provided with the best varieties 
of fruit. It is with Orchards moreover, as it is so remarkably with Vineyards, that some portions of 
the ground will produce much finer liquor than the rest, although the soil apparently is the same 
throughout. The fact is undoubted, but the reason seems inscrutable and beyond the powers of 
chemistry to define. 
The Cider and Perry from the English Orchards are admitted to be far superior to those 
liquors from other countries and thus our Orchards should shew the soils best suited to their 
