ORCHARD (AS. ortceard, ortyeard. Goth. alirtigrards, from ort, Goth. arirl1, Olcel. art, herb: connected with AS. wild, Goth. waarts, 011G. icarz. Ger. War,:el. 01r. freer, Lat. radix, Gk. rhadamenos +yeard, Goth. yards, on:. (;,r. uarren, garden: connected with 01r. gort, crop, Lat. hortas, garden, Gk. x6proc, chortos, yard). Any plantation of cultivated fruit trees. The fruits usually classified as orchard fruits include apples. peaches and nec tarines. plums and prunes, pears. cherries. quinces, and apricots. These are all deciduous fruits. Plantations of citrus fruits. olives, etc.. are sometimes referred to as groves and some times as orchards, and the same is true of plantations of cultivated chestnuts, pecans. wal nuts. etc. In this article only deciduous fruits are considered. In Europe. especially in Germany and France, much of the deciduous fruit is pro duced on the fruit trees which line the principal highways. There also large quantities of deciduous fruit are grown on walls. espaliers, and cordons, requiring special pruning and training. Practical ly every farm in .America, more particularly in the Northern States and Canada. contains an or chard for fancily use. The largest commercial orchards in the world are found in _America. where the trees are allowed to grow naturally with but relatively little pruning. and where attention is given to thorough cultivation, spraying. and fertilizing. The total value of the orchard fruits produced in the United States in the year 1899 was $83,751,840. The total number of fruit trees that year is reported as 367,164,694, of which 55 per cent. were apple trees, about 27 per cent. peach and nectarine, S per cent. plum and prune, and 4.5 per cent. pear; cherry trees stood next in importance, and apricot trees last. mong the more striking developments in modern orchard fruit-growing are (1) the in creased attention given to orchard tillage; (2) the practice of spraying to control insect pests and fungous diseases; (3) fertilizing; (4) thin ning: (5) use of small packages in marketing; and (6) the development of cold storage and refrigerator-car transportation.
Formerly the orchard in America was a small adjunct of the general farm. After setting out the trees the orchard was largely left to itself. Occasionally the trees were pruned, but the orchard was seldom fertilized or tilled, and was either left in sod or planted to farm crops. With the increased demand for fruit among all classes of people, greater attention was paid to orchards. In favorable localities they be come the most important part of the farm. Gradually whole farms and localities come to be given up to orchards. which in many dis trict: occupy hundreds of square miles.
With the development of the orchard came in creased attention to cultural details. Orchards are prepared by deep plowing, subsoiling in heavy lands. and thorough harrowing. After the trees are set they are given as clean cultiva tion as other farm crops. lloed crops may be planted between the rows of trees for the first few years, but as the trees increase in size these are more and more restricted to the middle of the rows, until finally when the trees come into hearing the whole -pace is devoted to them alone. Neither cereal. nor tall-growing crops that are likely to shade the trees are sown in the young orchard, nor is the orchard seeded down except under special conditions. as when the trees are growing too rankly and produce little or no fruit. In such cases seeding to cereals, grass,
etc., may tend to check growth and throw the trees into bearing. The orchard is plowed in spring as early as the ground can he worked. This is followed by cultivation every week or ten days until about the middle or last of sum mer, or until the wood growth of the tree has practically ceased. At the last cultivation a cover crop is sown. If the soil is poor in nitrogen a leguminous crop is used, otherwise some cereal or grass may be sown or the weeds allowed to grow. The object of the cover crop is fully to check the growth of the tree for the season. so that the wood may ripen tip well before winter. The cover crop also protects the soil from leaching, washing. and puddling in winter. The following spring the cover crop is plowed under, and the summer cultivation repeated. In arid regions irrigation (q.v.) must be practiced. Spraying to check the ravages of injurious insects and plant diseases is considered absolutely essential in American commercial orchards for the production of first-class fruit. (See FrSh,KIDE•) The fact that the production of orchard fruits draws on the fertility of the soil in exactly the same manner that wheat. corn. or any other farm crop does, is well recognized. and the orchard is regularly fer tilized. Orchards are no longer permitted to hear all the fruit the trees will set, so that the limb, have to be propped lip to keep them from breaking. Crops thus produced were found to contain too many small and ninnerchantable fruits. besides rapidly exhausting the energies of the tree. Especially is thinning practiced with the more expensive fruits, such as peaches. and in many orchards even the cheaper fruits. like apples. are thinned. The thinning is done soon after the fruits attain the size of the end of the thumb.
In the marketing of fruits much more atten tion is paid than formerly to the convenience of the ultimate purchaser, i.e. the consumer. Small packages which lie can conveniently carry home from market are most in demand. (See MARKET.) Cold storage is being employed not only iu the main centres of consumption, but in the fruit districts themselves. It makes pos sible the prolongation of the marketing from a few weeks to, in some cases, as many months, thus lessening the danger from glut on the market. increasing the net returns to the grower, and greatly prolonging the season When fresh fruits may be obtained by the consumer. Re frigerator cars also make possible the transporta tion of perishable fruit, to distant and better market,. See also REFRIoEiiATIO\.
BIBLI(iGRAPIIY. Thomas, The .1 merica n Fruit CCulturi.st (New York. 1897) : Bailey. Principles of Fruit Growing (New York. 1900) ; id., Cr/clo p-cilia of American Hort icult ore (New York, 19021. The agricultural experiment stations have published an enormous number of bulletins and reports on the various phases of some of which are Orchard rOrt-r Crops (New York Cornell Agricultural Experiment Station, Bulletin 108) ; Improving an Orcha rd (Rhode Island Agricultural Experiment Station. Bulletin 83) ; Orchard Experiments (Massachusetts Agri cultural Experiment Station. Bulletin 8:1) ; The Apple Orchard (Missouri Agricultural Experi ment Station. Bulletin 49). Consult also litera ture under the various orchard fruits. See FRUIT. (jULTIVATED: HORTICULTURE.