ORCHARD

ORCHARD. As an appendix to this article in the Encycl. some of our readers will be pleased with the following means, employed by the Rev. Mr. Germerbausen, for promoting the growth of young trees, and increasing the size and flavour of the fruit in orchards.

Having planted several young plum trees in an orchard, he covered the ground, for some years, around the trunks, as far as the roots extended, with flax-shows (A); by which means these trees, though in a grass-field, increased in a wonderful manner, and far excelled others planted in cultivated ground. As far as the shows reached, the grass and weeds were choked; and the soil under them was so tender and soft, that no better mould could have been wished for by a florist.

When he observed this, he covered the ground with the same substance, as far as the roots extended, around an old plum-tree, which appeared to be in a languishing state, and which stood in a grass-field. The consequences were, that it acquired a strong new bark; produced larger and better-tasted fruit; and that those young shoots, which before grew up around the stem, and which it was every year necessary to destroy, were prevented from sprouting forth, as the covering of flax-shows impeded the free access of air at the bottom of the trunk.

In the year 1793, he transplanted, from seed-beds, into the nursery, several fruit-trees; the ground around some of which he covered, as above, with flax-shows. Notwithstanding the great heat of the summer, none of those trees where the earth was covered with shows died or decayed; because the shows prevented the earth under them from being dried by the sun. Of those trees, around which the ground was not covered as before mentioned, the fourth part miscarried; and those that continued alive were far weaker than the former.

The leaves which fall from trees in autumn may also be employed for covering the ground in like manner; but stones, or logs of wood, must be laid on them, to prevent their being dispersed by the wind. In grass-land, a small trench may be made around the roots of the tree, when planted, in order to receive the leaves. If flax shows are used, this is not necessary; they lie on the surface of the ground so fast as to resist the force of the most violent storm. The leaves which our author found most effectual in promoting the growth and fertility of fruit trees, are those of the walnut-tree. Whether it is, that, on account of their containing a greater abundance of saline particles, they communicate manure to the ground, which thereby becomes tender under them; or that they attract nitrous particles from the atmosphere; or that, by both these means, they tend to nourish the tree both above and below.

Those who are desirous of raising tender exotic trees from the seed, in order to acclimatize them to our climate, may, when they transplant them, employ flax-shows with

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with great advantage. This covering will prevent the frost from making its way to the roots; and rats and mice, on account of the sharp prickly points of the flax-shoes, will not be able to shelter themselves under them.