70 ' BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



no two roots crossing each other — but all spread about the tree -so 

 that where they take hold of the ground, you have a perfect sup- 

 port to your tree. I should hardly agree with him in regard to 

 pouring water into the hole. I would select for setting out a tree 

 a time when the ground is dry enough that you ma} 7 handle it 

 readily and intermix it thoroughly with the roots without any 

 trouble, and trust to the next rain that comes to settle it down. 



Now in regard to the choice of trees. As to their age, it-depends 

 upon how thrifty they were in the nursery. I should prefer pear 

 trees not more than one or two years old. There is an old and 

 trite saying, " As the twig is bent, the tree is inclined." We may 

 train up a little tree just as we may train up a little child, and 

 shape it about as we please. But take one that has grown up 

 high and awkwardly, perhaps, in coming from the nursery, all the 

 buds will be rubbed from one of the side limbs, (if they are not 

 broken,) and it is difficult to make a good tree without cutting it 

 close down again. I would say then, take small trees ; I certainly 

 would not have them more than three or four feet high, because 

 small trees need no staking, their roots are more likely to be 

 sufficient, and you need to cut them back but little. 

 * I was glad to hear the question raised as to the distance that 

 trees should be set apart. I see no greater error in connection 

 with the cultivation of orchards than in the distance between the 

 trees. Mr. Gold says, thirty or forty feet. In the main I agree 

 with him. It depends much upon the variety. The Baldwin, the 

 Greening, and several other large growing trees, should certainly 

 have forty feet. I have in mind an orchard set out 24 feet one 

 way, and T\ the other, making 25| on an average, The trees 

 have now grown to full size, and a man cannot handle a ladder 

 properly among those trees. He must push it up among the 

 branches to get at the apples. The branches interweave, and we 

 know that the roots are interwoven more than the branches. The 

 roots of apple trees frequently run off four or live rods from the 

 trunk: Thirty or forty feet is little enough for the larger growing 

 trees, and I am not sure but it is little enough for almost any. 

 The last I set out, I put fifty feet apart. And here, upon our hill- 

 sides, where land bears only a moderate price, we ought certainly 

 to give trees all the room they need ; and for another reason, 

 because they will be more profitable in the end. It requires a 

 good deal of courage in a man to cut down trees that he planted 

 ten or fifteen years before ; very few will do it. Again, the ten 



