a garden-department, configned entirely to the growth of standard fruit-trees, for furnishing a large supply of the most useful kinds of fruit. For the particular management of the orchard, see GARDENING.
In the orchard you may have, as standards, all sorts of apple-trees, most sorts of pears and plums, and all sorts of cherries: which four species are the capital orchard fruits; each of them comprising numerous valuable varieties. But to have a complete orchard, you may also have quinces, medlars, mulberries, service-trees, filberts, Spanish nuts, blackberries; likewise walnuts and chestnuts; which two latter are particularly applicable for the boundaries of orchards, to screen the other trees from the insults of impetuous winds and cold blasts. All the trees ought to be arranged in rows from 20 to 30 feet distance, as hereafter directed.
But sometimes orchards consist entirely of apple-trees, particularly in the cider-making counties, where they are cultivated in very great quantities in large fields, and in hedge-rows, for the fruit to make cider for public supply.
And sometimes whole orchards of very considerable extent are entirely of cherry-trees. But in this case, it is when the fruit is designed for sale in some great city, as London, &c. for the supply of which city, great numbers of large cherry orchards are in some of the adjacent counties, but more particularly in Kent, which is famous for very extensive cherry orchards; many of which are entirely of that sort called Kentish cherry, as being generally a great bearer; others are stored with all the principal sorts of cultivated cherries, from the earliest to the latest kinds.
A general orchard, however, composed of all the before-mentioned fruit-trees, should consist of a double portion of apple-trees or more, because they are considerably the most useful fruit, and may be continued for use the year round.
The utility of a general orchard, both for private use and profit, stored with the various sorts of fruit-trees, must be very great, as well as afford infinite pleasure from the delightful appearance it makes from early spring till late in autumn: In spring the various trees in blossom are highly ornamental; in summer, the pleasure is heightened by observing the various fruits advancing to perfection; and as the season advances, the mature growth of the different species arriving to perfection, in regular succession, from May or June, until the end of October, must afford exceeding delight, as well as great profit.
Of the Extent, Situation, and Soil for the Orchard.—
As to the proper extent of ground for an orchard, this must be proportioned, in some measure, to the extent of land you have to work on, and the quantity of fruit required either for private use or for public supply; so that an orchard may be from half an acre to 20 or more in extent.
With respect to the situation and aspect for an orchard, we may observe very thriving orchards both in low and high situations, and on declivities and plains, in various aspects or exposures, provided the natural soil is good: we should, however, avoid very low damp situations as much as the nature of the place will admit; for in very wet soils no fruit trees will prosper, nor the fruit be fine: but a moderately low situation, free from copious wet, may be more eligible than an elevated ground, as being less exposed to tempestuous winds; though a situation having a small declivity is very desirable, especially if its aspect incline towards the east, south-east, or southerly, which are rather more eligible than a westerly aspect; but a north aspect is the worst of all for an orchard, unless particularly compensated by the peculiar temperament or good quality of the soil.
And as for soil, any common field or pasture that produces good crops of corn, grass, or kitchen-garden vegetables, is suitable for an orchard; if it should prove of a loamy nature, it will be a particular advantage: any soil, however, of a good quality, not too light and dry, or too heavy, stony, or wet, but of a medium nature, of a soft, pliant temperature, not less than one spade deep of good flayle, will be proper for this purpose.
Preparation of the ground.—The preparation of the ground for the reception of trees, is by trenching; or, if for very considerable orchards, by deep ploughing; but trench-digging, one or two shades, as the soil will admit, is the most eligible, either wholly, or only for the present in the places where the lines of trees are to stand, a space of fix or eight feet wide, all the way in each row, especially if it be grass-ground, and intended to be kept in the fward; or if any under-crops are designed to be raised, the ground may be wholly trench-ed at first: in either case trench the ground in the usual way to the depth of the natural soil; and if in grass, turn the fward clean to the bottom of each trench, which, when rotted, will prove an excellent manure.
In planting orchards, however, on grass-grounds, some only dig pits for each tree, capacious enough for the reception of the roots, looening the bottom well, without the labour of digging any other part of the ground.
The ground must be fenced securely against cattle, &c. either with a good ditch and hedge, or with a pal-ing-fence, as may be most convenient.
Method of planting the Trees.—The best season for planting all the sorts of fruit-trees is autumn, soon after the fall of the leaf, from about the latter end of October until December; or indeed it might be performed any time in open weather from October until March.
Choose principally full standards, with straight clean stems, fix feet high; each with a branchy well-formed head, or from two or three to four or five years growth; and let several varieties of each particular species be chosen, that ripen their fruit at different times, from the earliest to the latest, according to the nature of the dif- ferent sorts, that there may be a proper supply of every sort regularly during their proper season. Of apples and pears in particular, choose a much greater quantity of the autumnal and late ripening kinds than of the early sorts, but most of all of apples; for the summer-ripening fruit is but of short duration, only proper for temporary service; but the later ripening kinds keep found some considerable time for autumnal use; and the latest sorts that ripen in October, continue in perfection for various uses all winter, and several sorts until the season of apples come again.
Having made choice of the proper sorts, and marked them, let them be taken up with the utmost care, so as to preserve all their roots as entire as possible; and when taken up, prune off any broken or bruised parts of the roots, and just tip the ends of the principal roots, in general, with the knife on the under side with a kind of slope outward.
If the trees have been already headed, or so trained as to have branched out into regular shoots to form each a proper head, they must be planted with the said heads entire, only retrenching or shortening any irregular or ill-placed shoot that takes an awkward direction, or grows across its neighbours, or such as may run considerably longer than all the rest, &c.
The arrangement of the trees in the orchard must be in rows, each kind separate, at distances according to the nature of the growth of the different sorts; but for the larger growing kinds, such as apples, pears, plums, cherries, &c. they should stand from 25 to 30 or 40 feet every way asunder, though 25 or 30 feet at most is a reasonable distance for all these kinds.
Each species and its varieties should generally be in rows by themselves, the better to suit their respective modes of growth: though for variety there may be some rows of apples and pears arranged alternately, as also of plumbs and cherries; and towards the boundaries there may be ranges of lesser growth, as quinces, medlars, filberts, &c. and the outer row of all may be walnut-trees, and some chestnuts, set pretty close to defend the other trees from violent winds.
According to the above distances, proceed to stake out the ground for making the holes for the reception of the trees, which if made to range every way, will have a very agreeable effect, and admit the currency of air, and the sun's influence more effectually.
But in planting very extensive orchards, some divide the ground into large squares or quarters, of different dimensions, with intervals of 50 feet wide between; serving both as walks, and for admitting a greater currency of air; in different quarters planting different sorts of fruit, as apples in one, pears in another, plums and cherries in others, &c. and thus it may be repeated to as many quarters for each species and its varieties as may be convenient.
As to the mode of planting the trees: A wide hole must be dug for each tree, capacious enough to receive all the roots freely every way without touching the sides. When the holes are all ready, proceed to planting, one tree in each hole, a person holding the stem erect, whilst another trims in the earth, previously breaking it small, and casting it in equally all about the roots, frequently thaking the tree to cause the mould to settle in close about all the smaller roots and fibres, and so as to raise the tree gradually up, that the crown of the roots may be but two or three inches below the general surface; and when the hole is filled up, tread it gently, first round the outside, then near the stem of the tree, forming the surface a little hollow; and then, if on the top of all be laid some inverted turf to the width of the hole, forming it with a fort of circular bank, three or four inches high, it will support the tree, and guard the roots from drying winds and the summer's drought: observing that each tree stand perfectly upright, and that they range exactly in their proper rows.
Method of improving the Fruit.—The following method is said to have been successfully employed, by a German clergyman, in 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, or the refuse of flax when it is scutched or heckled; by which means these trees, though in a graft-field, increased in a wonderful manner, and far excelled others planted in cultivated ground. As far as the shows reached, the grafts 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 graft-field. The consequences were, that it acquired a strong new bark, produced larger and better tailed 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 feed-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 grassland, 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 accustom them to our climate, may, ORD