5r2 PYKUS MALUS. 



Imve occurred amonnst tlic standards, fnmi accident or disease, at the time ot 

 rciHDval. AinoiiLT oiIkt advantages r^slIltin^ from the wide planting: of orchards, 

 may be mentioned the iiealtliful and invigoratiiii^ inlhien<'e of the snn on every 

 part of the trees, and lliereby cansinu; them to brin^ forth more fruit, and that 

 which is larger, I'airer, and better llavonred; for an apple, of a globular form, three 

 inches in diameter, contains twenty-seven times more bulk, than one of ;in inch 

 in diamett>r. (ulobes bt'iiig to each other as the cubes of their diameters.) Hence 

 apples ar(> not to be valued by their number only, but by their size; and indeed, 

 by their weiszht : for most weight must be expected where there is most juice, 

 and juice will follow health and vigour.* Another important advantage is, that 

 trees i)lanted at wide intervals from each other, have more roi^m to spread, with- 

 out the interference of their roots ami tuanches, and consequently will bear a 

 greatiM- (|uantity of fruit. A tree with a hemispherical head, fifty feet in diame- 

 ter, will have twenty-five times as much fruit-bearing surface, as one of the same 

 formed head ten feet in diameter. In other words, circumstances being equal, it 

 would produce as much fruit as twenty- five of the smaller trees, although it 

 would occupy but little more than one half as much ground. 



The usual mode of planting out trees in an orchard, is the square-form ; but 

 the system most esleemed and adopted by the ancients, was to plant them in 

 quiiicuncem, that is, in the form of the Roman numeral V., which answers to four 

 asterisks placed in the corners of an oblong square, with a fifth midway between 

 them. The two modes may be illustrated by the following diagrams: 



QUINCUNX-FORM. SQUARE-FORM. 



The quincunx, when compared with the square-form, saves one eighth of the 

 ground, and has the advantage of disposing the trees at equal distances apart in 

 every direction.! I^'i^ vacant spaces which will be left at the ends of every other 

 row of standards, may be filled with supernumerary dwarf trees, and allowed to 

 remain permanently. To plant temporary trees between the principal ones, so 

 as to divide the distances into halves, will require about two supernumeraries for 

 every principal one, by the square-form, and a less number by the quincunx- 



* Papers of Mass. Agr. Soc, 1804, p. 85. 



f The following is a practical method of laying out an orchard by the quincunx -form : First, deter 

 mine the points for the centre of each tree in the outer row, by setting stakes at equal distances apart 

 say fifty feet. Take a line one hundred feet in length, with a knot or mark in its middle, and place its 

 two ends at two contiguous stakes ; then extend the knot or mark till the whole line becomes stretched 

 in two equal lengths, and the knot or mark will indicate the place for a tree in the next row, where there 

 should be driven another stake. Repeat the same operation with a second pair of stakes in the outer row, 

 and another point will be determined in the next row, where there must also be inserted a stake. In like 

 manner, continue with all the other stakes, checking, in the mean time, each of the stations by oblique, 

 cross, and longitudinal sights, till the whole be completed. Every tree in such an orchard, will be fifty 

 feet from each of its neighbours ; but the rows will be only forty-three and three-tenths feet apart ; and 

 this distance is to fifty feet nearly as seven is to eight. Consequently, one eighth of the ground u-i.. be 

 saved, as intimated above. In order to show the distance of the rows apart by the quincimx-form, the 



