114 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



is worth ten times over the added cost of making them so, 

 which after all is not great. We laid off our first row with a 

 transit, hecause one happened to be available, but a man with 

 a good "straight eye" could have done nearly as well. This 

 first row was run along one side of the field to be planted and a 

 stake was set every i6 1-2 feet, the distance apart for the trees. 

 Then a cross row was laid off at right angles to this, near one 

 end of the field. This was all the sighting that was done. The 

 rest of the stakes were set with two measuring boards 16 1-2 

 feet long, with a small notch at each end. The accompanying 

 diagram will serve to illustrate the method. 

 It was surprising to see how accurately and expeditiously the 

 stakes were set. And it did not require high priced labor to 

 do it either. Two Polanders, at a dollar and a half a day, one 

 of whom could speak scarcely a word of English, did the whole 

 thing, and we should be glad to compare results with anybody 

 who has used a different method, for we feel decidedly proud 

 of the way our trees "row" in all directions. For locating the 

 trees we used a planting board, a device by no means new but 

 which deserves a wider use than it gets. There are several 

 types of them but the one we used was about four feet long 

 by eight inches wide, with a notch at each end and one in the 

 middle (see diagram). 



The middle notch was placed against the stake set for the 

 tree, a short piece of lath was then driven down in each of the 

 end notches and the planting board was taken away and the 

 hole dug for the tree where the center stake stood. Then when 

 it came time to set the tree, whether it was that afternoon or the 

 next day or the next week, the planting board was put in place 

 on the two small stakes, the tree was slipped into the middle 

 notch and was planted, and of course stood exactly where the 

 original stake stood. Both of these methods, the setting of a 

 stake for each tree, and the use of the planting board, have been 

 objected to by those who profess to know about such things, on 

 the ground that they take too much time, that they are slow and 

 expensive methods. But when I say that the first year it cost us 



