No Apple blossom this year?

I was saddened by what I saw.  Along a pleasant country lane I came to a crossroads with a bus stop, a line of trees in the distance and a huge field of neatly piled logs in rows. In one row were all the tops of the trees waiting to be chopped into piles.  I stopped to see what was happening in this abattoir of an orchard.

The man was busy with his chain saw and didn’t look up as I approached:
“Are they apple trees?"  I asked.  “Oui, pommes.  They are all dead"
“They are now," I thought as I looked at the trunks neatly piled in rows.
“How many?"
Two hectares.  Not far short of several hundred trees.
“Will you replant them?"
“Non, agriculture."  He shrugged and carried on.

Not my favourite sight on my Camino.  And I wondered how people at the bus stop would never be able to admire all that Apple blossom in spring time….