THE ORCHARD, ITS ASPECT, CLIMATE, SITE AND MANURING. 
I 2 I 
quickly its own warmth, that the roots may be stimulated early in the season, to take up from the 
soil all the principles necessary for the healthy life and vigorous growth of the trees. 
Aspect, Climate, and Site. —The Aspect and Site of the Orchard involve its Climate ; and 
on no subject do the writers of the 17th and 18th centuries differ more, for though all agree in 
preferring the South, they embrace nearly every point of the compass. The “ Compleat Planter 
and Cyderist ” (1690,) recommends a South, South-East, or South-West, aspect protected from the 
North, North-East, and North-West winds by buildings, woods, or higher grounds. Dr. Beale in his 
“ Tract on Herefordshire Orchards'’ (1656,) preferred a South aspect inclining rather to the rising 
than to the setting sun. Mortimer in his “ Husbandry ” recommends any site from East to West, 
Thomas Andrew Knight also thought any site from the East by South to the West, favourable 
for Orcharding. 
The general belief is that a Southern aspect with an inclination to the East, is best adapted 
for the Orchard ; thus following the popular idea of the health giving properties of the morning 
sun. In other words this aspect gives a better supply of light and heat and therefore affords a 
better promise of healthy vegetation and fruitful crops. This belief holds good for Herefordshire 
where the West winds are apt to prevail with very great violence; but apart from such special 
circumstances, any aspect, tending Westward, is the proper one for an Orchard. It is well known 
that if plants are exposed to the direct influence of the rising sun when they are frozen they will 
suffer, and in some cases altogether perish. But if the same plants are shaded till they are 
gradually thawed by the increasing temperature of the atmosphere, they recover from the effects of 
the frost, and are rarely injured. Hence it is that an Orchard, if exposed to the direct influence of 
the morning sun, is almost sure to suffer after an attack of spring frost when the trees are in 
blossom, or when the fruit is setting; whereas one with a Western aspect, which does not receive 
the direct rays of the sun till he has risen, and the temperature of the atmosphere has risen also, 
and dispelled the frost, it escapes, and the fruit crop is saved. We frequently find one side of an 
Orchard, or one side of a tree, bearing fruit abundantly, when the other side is quite bare, and this 
very generally arises from the same cause. If frozen blossoms could be shaded till the sun had 
diffused its warming influence and dispelled the frost, before its rays reach them, the blossoms 
would be saved. 
It is sometimes found advantageous to have plantations in different aspects so as to secure 
crops in variable seasons. Marshall had an Orchard in a North-West aspect fully fruited in 1783 
when the Cider fruit was cut off in every other aspect that year. The same fact was happily 
experienced in 1879, by Mr. Hill of Eggleton, and some other growers. 
Orchards are often planted too low in the valleys, for though they may yet have more rich 
alluvial soil and better protection from wind there, they have to encounter the cold damp fogs of night 
which are often so destructive to the blossom in spring and are apt to check the free growth of the 
fruit. The best situation, where the soil is good, is one that is raised well above the level of the 
night fogs, on the low ground. 
Worlidge has these quaint and consolatory remarks on the best position for the Orchard : 
