ORCHAR D. 
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mal, has “its infancy, its flowering fpring, its fummer’s 
ardent ftrength, its fober autumn fading into age, and its 
pale concluding winter.” 
The opinion of the loeft informed planters is, that the 
feeds of the old fruits fhould he Town, and the molt ftrong 
and healthy plants feledfed for cultivation, and a fupply 
of grafts. This experiment has been adopted on a large 
fcale by feveral planters, has hitherto promifed the fulleffc 
fuccefs, and has, further, the fandtion of that period in 
which orcharding received particular attention. And it 
is added, that a treatife on this fubjedf was publifhed by 
W. Lawfon, a north countryman, in the year 1626 ; and 
he ftates, that tiie very bell way to olantan orchard, is to 
turn the ground with a fpade in February, and to fet, 
from February to May, fome kernels of the bell and 
founded apples and pears a finger deep, and a foot dif- 
tance; and to leave the likelieft plants only in the natu¬ 
ral place, removing the others as time and occafion fhall 
require. And that lord Scudamore alfo fully underftood 
the nature and value of this pradlice; who, on retiring to 
Hoime Lacy, amidft other ul'eful and honourable em¬ 
ployments of a country life, paid great attention to the 
culture of fruit-trees, and particularly to that of the red- 
ftreak, which he feerns to have introduced into general 
notice and efteem. A treatife, called the Countryman’s 
Recreation, or the Art of Planting, Grafting, &c.(i 654.) 
remarks, that, “although the pippins be fown of the 
pomes of pears and good apples, yet we fhall find that 
lome of them do love the tree whereof they came ; and 
thofe be right which have a finooth bark, and are as fair 
as thofe which be grafted.” Thefe inftances, it is pre¬ 
fumed, are fufficient to fhow that, at the period alluded 
to, it was well known, that good fruits might be raifed 
byTowing the kernels of good apples, and felecfing thofe 
plants, which, in the abfence of thorns, and in the ge¬ 
neral appearance of their leaves and bark, bore the great- 
eft refemblance to the cultivated variety of the parent 
tree; whilft thofe which approach the native crab were 
carefully rejected. Yet Evelyn, in the Appendix to his 
Sylva, publifhed feveral years afterwards, proves that the 
pradlice was hardly known there in his time. He writes, 
“Nothing is more facile than to raife new kinds of apples, 
in infinitum, from kernels; yet, in that apple-county 
(Hereford) fo much addidted to orchards, we could ne¬ 
ver encounter more than two or three perfons that did 
believe it.” This method, however, is now becoming 
more and more general. The writer fays, feveral thoufand 
grafts, thus raifed, are yearly diftributed by the Agricul¬ 
tural Society, and are fought for with the utmoft avidity. 
The molt experienced planters coniider it as the beft, if 
not the only, expedient to preferve their provincial ce¬ 
lebrity; and nothing furely can be more unphilofophical 
than to fuppofe that a piece of old dying tree can ever 
form a healthy and vigorous one. It is added, that 
Mr. Knight has now many feedling apple-trees, pro¬ 
duced between the Siberian crab and our riciieft apples. 
The vigour of moil of them is aftonifhing ; and, as they 
bloffom as early as the pear-trees, he is convinced that 
they will be found of great value, particularly in high 
fituations, where the Siberian very rarely fails to produce 
a good crop of fruit. 
In refpedl to the management afterwards, it chiefly con- 
fifts in keeping the trees properly pruned, thinned, and 
cut-in. v And it has been remarked, that the manage¬ 
ment of orchards is capable of being reduced to a fyftem 
under a few general heads, concentered in the principle 
of making all trees in orchards healthy, round, large, and 
beautiful. 
The author of the Report for the County of Hereford 
fays, that the pear, although, in general, producing an 
inferior liquor, poflefl'es many advantages for general cul¬ 
ture, when compared with the apple. It will flourilh in 
a greater variety of foils; is more produdtive; and, being 
incapable (in thofe forts which are proper for perry) to 
be eaten or applied to any common culinary purpofe, it 
is little fubjedf to be ftolen, even in fituations where fruit 
does not abound. As an ornamental tree, it poflefl'es 
fufficient merit to entitle it to a place where ornament is 
the principal objedl ; its form is often pidlurefque; it 
blofloms in the fpring, and its fruit in autumn is always 
beautiful. Every tree, when nearly full grown, will af¬ 
ford, in moderately-good ground, arT annual produce of 
twenty gallons of liquor, (taking many years together,) 
even at the lowed calculation. Many dingle trees in 
Herefordfhire have produced a hogfhead in one feafon, 
and an extraordinary tree growing on the glebe land of 
the parifh of Holme Lacy has more than once filled fif¬ 
teen hoglheads in tlie fame year. When the branches of 
this tree, in its original date, became long and heavy, 
their extreme ends fucceffively fell to the ground, and, 
taking frefli root at the feveral points where they touche-d 
it, each branch became a pew tree, and in its turn pro¬ 
duced others in the fame way. Nearly half an acre of land 
remains thus covered at the prelent time. Some of the 
branches have fallen over the hedge into an adjacent mea¬ 
dow ; and little difficulty would be found in extending its 
progrefs. An acre of land is capable'of containing thirty 
pear-trees of ufual dimenfions, which, taken from new 
varieties of fruit, would probably continue in a product¬ 
ive date beyond the conclusion of a fecond century. The 
produce of an acre planted with apple-trees will gene¬ 
rally be found nearly one-third lefs than the fame quan¬ 
tity of ground planted with pear-trees would afford, with 
the exception of the halmer pear, and the old-field ; but’ 
the apple-tree begins to bear at an earlier age, and cider 
will ever be j 11 ftly preferred to the juice of the pear. As 
an objedl of fight, the pear-tree has every advantage over 
its rival ; but Mr. A. Knight is of opinion that, under the 
fyftem now pradtifing to procure new varieties, the ap¬ 
ple-tree may, in fome degree at lead, acquire the recom¬ 
mendation of ornament, as well as ufe; thole eroded 
with the Siberian crab promife to be of this defeription. 
The value of the ground as a pafture in clofely-planted 
orchards will neceffarily be much reduced ; but the lofs 
of herbage will in a few inftances amount to more than 
one-tenth of the value of the fruit. 
The grafs produced in an orchard comes very early 
in the fpring, when it is peculiarly valuable to the 
farmer. Under judicious management it is never fuffered 
to grow long or coarfe ; and an orchard in this condition 
will be found to fupport a very conliderable quantity of 
flock. 
It is further obferved in the dime Report, that, if the 
apple and pear trees were thinly difperfed over the mea¬ 
dows and paftures of every diftridl in which they would 
fucceed, the injury done to the herbage would be ex¬ 
tremely fmall; and the trees might perhaps be made to 
fupply the whole population of the country employed in 
agriculture with as wholefome and palatable a beverage 
as they now poflefs, and in fruitful years a large quantity 
would be afforded for the ufe of the towns. The num¬ 
ber of acres now employed in railing hops and poles to 
fupport them, might be greatly reduced, and this alone 
would prove an immenfe advantage to agriculture. Hops 
at prefent occupy the beft ground the farmer has; they 
take his beft manure; they are too often the principal 
objedts of his attention ; and, whilft their culture injures 
the crops of corn in every diftridl where they abound, it 
may be queftioned whether the produce of a thoufand 
acres annually affords nutriment fufficient to fupport a 
human being. By an extended culture of the apple and 
pear, many millions of bufliels of barley, now converted 
into malt, might be annually faved and applied to better 
purpofes. 
It has been obferved by the author of the Rural Eco¬ 
nomy of Gloucefterlhire and Herefordfhire, that the cul¬ 
tivation of fruit-trees for the foie purpofe of liquor is 
peculiar to tlie weftern provinces. The fouthern counties, 
when the London markets are overltocked with fruit, 
make a fort of liquor from.the fur.plus; but the eaftern, 
the 
