As the fruit garden and orchards are usually near appendages to the
dwelling and out-buildings, a few remarks as to their locality and
distribution may be appropriate. The first should _always_ be near the
house, both for convenience in gathering its fruits, and for its due
protection from the encroachments of those not entitled to its
treasures. It should, if possible, adjoin the kitchen garden, for
convenience of access; as fruit is, or should be, an important item in
the daily consumption of every family where it can be grown and
afforded. A sheltered spot, if to be had, should be devoted to this
object; or if not, its margin, on the exposed side, should be set with
the hardiest trees to which it is appropriated--as the apple. The fruit
garden, proper, may also contain the smaller fruits, as they are termed,
as the currant, gooseberry, raspberry, and whatever other shrub-fruits
are grown; while the quince, the peach, the apricot, nectarine, plum,
cherry, pear, and apple may, in the order they are named, stand in
succession behind them, the taller and more hardy growth of each
successive variety rising higher, and protecting its less hardy and
aspiring neighbor. The soil for all these varieties of tree is supposed
to be congenial, and our remarks will only be directed to their proper
distribution.
The aspect for the fruit garden should, if possible, front the south,
south-east, or south-west, in a northerly climate. In the Middle and
Southern States the exposure is of less consequence. Currants,
gooseberries, raspberries, &c., should, for their most productive
bearing, and the highest quality of their fruits, be set at least four
feet apart, in the rows, and the rows six feet distant from each other,
that there may be abundant room to cultivate them with the plow, and
kept clean of weeds and grass. The quince, peach, apricot, nectarine,
and plum should be 16 feet apart each way. The pear, if on quince stock,
may be 12 feet apart, and if on its own stock, 20 to 24 feet; while the
apple should always be 30 to 36 feet apart, to let in the requisite
degree of sun and air to ripen as well as give growth, color, and flavor
to its fruit. The tendency of almost all planters of fruit trees is to
set them too close, and many otherwise fine fruit gardens are utterly
ruined by the compact manner in which they are planted. Trees are great
consumers of the atmosphere; every leaf is a lung, inhaling and
respiring the gases, and if sufficient breathing room be not allowed
them, the tree sickens, and pines for the want of it; therefore, every
fruit tree, and fruit-bearing shrub should be so placed that the summer
sun can shine on every part of its surface at some hour of the day. In
such position, the fruit will reach its maximum of flavor, size, and
perfection.
The ground, too, should be rich; and, to have the greatest benefit of
the soil, no crops should be grown among the trees, after they have
arrived at their full maturity of bearing. Thus planted, and nursed,
with good selections of varieties, both the fruit garden and the orchard
become one of the most ornamental, as well as most profitable portions
of the farm.
In point of position, as affecting the appearance of the homestead, the
fruit garden should stand on the _weather-side_ of the dwelling, so as,
although protected, in its several varieties, by itself, when not
altogether sheltered by some superior natural barrier, it should appear
to shelter both the dwelling and kitchen gardens, which adjoin them.
As this is a subject intended to be but incidentally touched in these
pages, and only then as immediately connected in its general character
with the dwelling house and its attachments, we refrain from going into
any particulars of detail concerning it. It is also a subject to which
we are strongly attached, and gladly would we have a set chat with our
readers upon it; but as the discussion for so broad a field as we should
have to survey, would be in many points arbitrary, and unfitting to
local information as to varieties, and particular cultivation, we refer
the reader, with great pleasure, to the several treatises of Downing,
and Thomas, and Barry, on this interesting topic, with which the public
are fortunately in possession; observing, only, that there is no one
item of rural economy to which our attention can be given, which yields
more of luxury, health, and true enjoyment, both to the body and the
mind, than the cultivation of good fruits.