HINTS ON THE PLANTING OF ORCHARDS. 



It is presumed that the person who seeks the advice of this bul- 

 letin, has fully decided what kinds of fruits he desires to plant, 

 and that he has satisfied himself that his markets, location and 

 soil are adapted to them. He then enquires about the methods 

 of preparing the land, the manner in which the trees should be 

 set and trimmed, and the best place to purchase the stock. It is 

 these questions which are continually recurring and concerning 

 which this paper hopes to give some advice. 



Preparation of layid. — The soil in which orchards are set should 

 always be in a thorough state of cultivation ; that is, whether in 

 sod or in hoed crops, the land should be in good tilth or fine 

 mechanical condition, fertile, and free from hard or "sour" 

 places and pernicious weeds. There are exceptions to this rule 

 in the case of certain rocky or steep lands upon which it is desired 

 to set apples ; but for all orchards which are planted directly for 

 commercial results, this advice has few, if any, exceptions. It is 

 generally best to put the land into hoed crops the season before 

 the trees are set, as potatoes or corn ; although sod land, if well 

 fitted and naturally in good heart, often gives excellent results 

 when turned over and set at once to orchards. But most soils 

 need the previous cultivation to bring them into a mellow and 

 uniform condition. Many of the "bad places" in orchards, 

 where trees die out the first two or three 5'ears, could have been 

 discovered and corrected if the land had been devoted to one or 

 several hoed crops, for the owner would have observed that they 

 were too wet or too lumpy or had other serious defects. Lands 

 look more uniform when in sod than when cultivated, and the 

 farmer may be led to overestimate their value for orchard pur- 

 poses. It may also be said that the familiarity with a particular 

 piece of land which comes of frequent cultivation, enables the 

 careful grower to j udge accurately of its adaptability to particular 

 fruits or even to special varieties. 



