building the american landscape - Univerza v Novi Gorici

In addition to being the first practical manual on the subject to be published in
America, The American Gardner’s Calendar achieved a wide success and by 1857 it
had reached its eleventh edition and was the benchmark for the numerous
publications in the sector.
Another manual, entitled A View of the Cultivation of Fruit Trees, and the
Management of Orchards and Cider, a work by William Coxe, was printed in
Philadelphia in 1817. Among the various illustrated trees and fruits, Coxe lingered
specifically on the apples, listing and describing a good 133 different types.
Moreover, he enlarged on pragmatic information about how to plant an orchard,
evidence that this was practiced rather frequently, that the information answered
real needs, and that a series of experiments were under way:
A south east aspect, which admits the influence of the early morning
Sun, and is protected from the pernicious effects of northerly winds, will
be found the best site for an orchard. The situation should he neither
too high nor too low. Rich strong loams are the fittest for the apple a
portion of calcareous matter mixed, either naturally or artificially with
the soil, will be found useful, probably by its serving to correct the
austerity, or to neutralize the acidity of many cider apples […] The first
thing to be determined upon in the planting of an orchard, is the proper
distance of the trees: if a mere fruit plantation be the object, the
distance may be small if the cultivation of grain and grass be in view, the
space between the trees must be wider: at thirty feet apart, an acre will
contain forty‐eight trees; at thirty‐five feet, thirty‐five trees; at forty
feet, twenty‐seven trees; and at fifty feet, about eighteen to the acre
these are the usual distances. 65
Among the settlements dedicated to the cultivation of the land in the regions of the
Atlantic North East of the United States were those of the Shaker community,
practically non‐existent today with the exception of a few individuals, who continue
to live in the village of Sabbath Lake, Maine, founded in 1794. The Shakers 66 [Figure
34], or rather, The United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, who
were persecuted in England, moved to America (1774) guided by mother Ann Lee
65 COXE, William, A View of the Cultivation of Fruit Trees, and the Management of Orchards and Cider,
Philadelphia, Carey and Son, 1817, pp. 30‐33
66 The Shakers are so called because of the ecstatic nature of their spiritual exercises (dance)
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