C96 
ORCHARD. 
coolnefs and moidure, and to effabfifii the plants firmly 
in the ground. In lolls of a middle quality, the hole 
Ihould be of fuch a depth, that, when thefods are thrown 
to the bottom of it, the plant will Hand at the fame depth 
in the orchard as it did in the nurlery. The holes ought 
to be made previous to the day of planting. If the ground 
and weather be dry, the holes Ihould have two or three 
pailfuls of water thrown into eacli the evening before. 
In planting, the fods Ihould be thrown to the bottom of 
the hole, chopped with the 1'pade, and covered with fome 
cf the lined: of the mould; if, with this, the bottom 
be not railed high enough for the plant, return fome 
of the word mould before the fods are putin. Upon the 
fine mould fpi'ead the lowed tier of roots, drawing them 
out horizontally, with all their fibres, prellingthem even¬ 
ly into the foil, and covering them, by hand, with fome 
cf the fined of the mould ; one perfon Readying the plant, 
another adjuding and bedding the roots,'and a third 
fupplying the mould ; which being railed high enough 
to receive another tier of roots, they are to be fpread and 
bedded like the former; thus proceeding till the roots 
are all bedded freely, yet firmly, among the bed of the 
foil. When they are covered fome depth, prefs the earth 
in well with the foot, and raife the remainder into a hil¬ 
lock round the dent, to afford coolnefs, moidure, and lia¬ 
bility to the plant. It is a common fault to plant fruit- 
trees too deep ift the ground. Provided they withdand 
the violence of the wind, they can Icarcely be planted too 
near, the furface. 
In Herefordlhire, the foil of orchards is generally kept 
under tillage; in Gloucederlhire, in grafs. Either prac¬ 
tice has its difadvantages. Fruit-trees, when fully grown, 
efpecially if they are cf fpreading growth, and are dif¬ 
fered to-form drooping branches, are very injurious to 
arable crops, at lead in our rnoid climate : their roots, 
their drip, and their lhadows, are dedruclive, not to corn 
only, but to clover and turnips ; they alfo impede a free 
circulation of air, and are in the way of plough-teams. 
Tillage however is favourable to the growth of young- 
trees; whereas, in grafs-grounds, their progrefs is compa¬ 
ratively flow, lor want of earth being ltirred about their 
roots, and by being injured by grazing-flock. Hence we 
may conclude, that, where circumdances will allow, it is 
bed to plant fruit-trees upon a newly broken-up fvvard ; 
to keep th.e foil unueraffate of arable management until 
the trees be well grown ; then to lay it down to grafs, 
and let it lo remain until, the trees be removed and their 
roots decayed ; when it will again require a courfe of ara¬ 
ble management. 
After orchard-trees are planted and fenced, they have 
fieldom any more care bellowed upon them : boughs are 
buffered to hang dangling to the ground; their head's are 
fio loaded with wood as to be impervious to fun and air, 
and they are left to be exliauded by mofs and rnifletoe. 
By a redundancy of.wood the roots are exhausted unpro¬ 
fitable - , the- bearing-wood is robbed of part of its fulle- 
nance, and the natural life of the tree unheceflarily xhort- 
ened; whild the luperfiuous wood endangers the tree, by 
giving the winds an additional power over it, and is inju¬ 
rious to the bearing-wood, by retaining the damps, and 
preventing a due circulation of air. The outer furface 
only is able to mature fruit properly; every inner and 
underling branch ought therefore to be removed. It is 
common to fee fruit-trees with two or three tiers of 
boughs prefling hard upon one another, with their twigs 
fio intimately interwoven, that a fmall bird can fcarcely 
creep in among them. Trees thus neglefted, acquire, 
from want of due ventilation, a Hinted habit, and the 
<tait becomes of a crude inferior quality. 
Midetoe is a great enemy to apple-orchards, and is fre¬ 
quently permitied to be very injurious to them. The or¬ 
dinary method of clearing trees from it, is to pull it out 
with hooks, in frody weather, when, being brittle, it 
readily breaks off from the branches. Sheep are as fond 
of it as they are of ivy. A labourer could clean fifty or 
fixty trees in one day ; and yet the Herefordlhire orchards 
are generally fuffered to be exhaulled by this parafite. 
They are alfo very often almod entirely fubdued by mofs, 
which kills many trees, and injures others fo much, that 
they are only an encumbrance to the ground, and a dll- 
grace to the country. This evil may ealily be checked, 
and in a great njeafure avoided. In Kent, there are men 
who make it their bufinefs to clean orchard-trees from 
mofs, at a certain price by the tree or by the whole. 
Draining the land, if too retentive of moidure, will forne- 
times prevent or cure mofs; or digging round the trees in 
winter, and bringing frelh mould, or the fcouring of 
ponds and roads, or the rubbilh of old walls, well pre¬ 
pared and pulverized, and laid round the trees. What¬ 
ever contributes to the health’of the tree, will cure, or in 
fome degree mitigate, thefe and other difeafes. 
Spring-frods are an enemy againd which it is very diffi¬ 
cult to guard orchard-trees. Dry frods are obferved to 
have no other efrefit than keeping the bloffoms back; 
but wet frods after rain or a foggy air, and before the 
trees have had time to dry, are very injurious, even to the 
buds. This cannot be avoided ; much however may de¬ 
pend upon the drength of the bloffoms; and theafiidance 
that art can give in this cafe is, to keep the trees in a 
healthy vigorous'date, to enable them to throw out drong 
buds and bloffoms; and, by keeping them thin of wood, 
to give them an opportunity of drying quickly, before 
the frods let-in. 
Blight,? are-very frequently fatal to the vernal bloffoms, 
and the consequent crop of fruit. Were it not for this 
malady, which commonly invades orchards in May, 
many perfons think that there would be a crop of fruit 
every year as regularly as there is a crop of corn. Per¬ 
haps, if trees in the full vigour of their life were to be 
kept in perfect order, and not fuffered to over-bear them- 
feives, this conftant fertility might be looked for, if they 
were not attacked by natural evils; and perhaps thefe 
natural evils might be in fome degree mitigated. But, 
when trees are badly planted on an unpropitious foil; are 
ill grafted on an infirm dock ; have little care bedowed on 
them, to protetl them from cattle, and to keep them clean 
from mofs'and midetoe; are fuffered to rim to unprofitable 
wood ; and, when they have a hit , as it is called, or bear a 
large crop of fruit, it is beaten down with poles or dicks, 
by which the buds that are forming for the fucceeding 
year are modly broiled or beaten off;—is it any wonder 
that, with all this ill-management, negleift, and bad ufage, 
the crop of fruit Ihould often fail, or that fpring frods 
and blights Ihould have their full effeft upon trees fo 
weakened and injured ? It feems rather furpriling, that, 
indead of bearing only once in two or three years, they 
fhould ever bear at all. 
Smaller infeCls are hurtful to the leaves, bloffoms, and 
liafcent fruit. Larger infefts devour the fruit in a date 
of maturity. Apples, particularly cider-fruit, are of a 
texture firm enough to refill their attacks: but pears are 
devoured in great quantities fome years by wafps. If a 
price were fet in the fpring upon the female wafp that 
comes out fingly in May, it might be a means of dedroy- 
ing many neds by anticipation. 
In Kent, particularly about Maiddone, are many fmall 
inclofures, from one to ten acres, and fomewhat more, 
planted with fruit of different kinds, for which the rocky 
foil of the neighbourhood is particularly adapted. The 
bed method known therefor railing orchards of apples 
and cherries, and plantations of filberts, is to plant them 
among hops. The condant culture of the land for the 
hops, with the warmth and dicker they afford the young 
trees, caufes them to grow with great luxuriance. It is 
a very common practice to plant hops, apples, cherries, 
and filberts, all together; eight hundred hop-hills, two 
hundred filberts, and forty a-pple and cherry trees, to an 
acre. Th.e hops Hand about twelve, and the filberts 
about thirty, years; by which time the apple and cherry 
trees require the whole land. Sometimes apple and 
cherry 
