GARDENS AND ORCHARDS. 
181 
low, that it little more than pays for labour, carriage, 
and attention ; yet the profits of such year have to 
stand against the damages of three or four years, also 
against the cost of the plants, planting, grafting, and 
protecting the young tree, besides the mill-house and 
apparatus, and the cost and wear and tear of casks, as 
well as cellar room ; and Mr. Marshall says, the evils 
of a habit of drinking in a-fruit year is the cause of 
much idleness, and in a dearth of fruit of an unnecessary 
waste of malt liquor. 
Notwithstanding these objections, I cannot give up 
the idea of so beautiful and excellent a production as 
fruit, being both an advantage and a blessing to man¬ 
kind, as well as an article beneficial to the country in a 
commercial view. If the trees are at proper distances, 
trained up to proper height, and pruned, the damage 
will be little ; if the liquor be prematurely sold at an 
under value, that is, for want of system, and the dealer 
gains the advantage instead of the grower, which is. 
equally beneficial to society, the price will of course 
always be high enough to pay the amount of labour and 
interest of capital, or the liquor could not be made; 
and the evils of drinking must be placed to the abuse, 
and not use, of the article, and may be corrected by 
regular management: something ought also to be placed 
to account, for the advantage of having always plenty 
of fruit for the family, as an article of food, made into 
reared pies; cheese and beer at meals are but little ne¬ 
cessary for the servants and children of the family. 
When fruit trees become unproductive from age, they 
should be cut down, and not suffered to rot growing, 
and would thus pay all the damage they occasion, as 
timber and fuel. 
3 N 
As 
