A Mystery in the Orchard

I went out to walk Brio at lunchtime and passed by Warwick Orchards, a big spread of maybe 400 acres of fruit trees and berry bushes. It's a lovely, well-kept place, and there's always the smell of apples being pressed coming from their warehouse. I noticed today, though, that about a hundred of their young trees have been knocked over and uprooted and left lying in their rows, among their scattered red apples. These were old enough trees that they were producing well. I'm wracking my brains to figure out why they would rip these trees out. They didn't look diseased. Surely they knew what variety they were planting. Are they clearing the way for something else? Was it vandalism? It was a bit distressing to see this unexplained destruction. I would have happily transplanted some of those trees to my yard. I have to trust that they know what they're doing, because the orchard looks very well run on the whole.

I wandered by the warehouse to see if I could find someone to ask, but no one was about. I'll watch over the next day or two and see if they get cleaned up, and what they are eventually replaced with.