474 Report of the Department ok Horticulture of the 



stocks for trees. 



Unfortunately few fruit-growers concern themselves with the 

 kind of stocks their trees are worked upon. Yet this is a most 

 important matter. Apples may be bought upon Paradise, Doucin, 

 or home-grown or French-grown standards. The first two named 

 are suitable only for the amateur, and, of the standards, those on 

 the foreign seedlings are usually much the better. Pears are grown 

 as standards on French seedlings or as dwarfs on the Angers quince. 

 The dwarfs are gradually going out of vogue. The peach should 

 be worked upon seedlings from southern pits and not upon those 

 from cannery seeds. Sour or sweet cherries on Mazzard stock are 

 far superior to those on the Mahaleb stock, yet the latter is usually 

 planted because easier for the nurseryman to grow and therefore 

 cheaper for the cherry-grower to buy — a great mistake on the part 

 of the grower, as trees on Mahaleb stock are dear at any price. 

 Plums are grown upon several stocks and no one seems to know 

 which are the best for the several species of this fruit, the different 

 types of soil, and the hundreds of varieties. 



LAYING OUT THE ORCHARD. 



After the trees are on hand the vexed problem arises as to how 

 the orchard is to be laid out — whether in squares, quincunxes, 

 hexagons, with or without fillers, and at what distances apart. 

 Planting in squares is usually best because it permits orchard opera- 

 tions to be carried on most readily. Both roots and branches will 

 utilize all of the space. Fillers of fruits other than varieties of the 

 same species as the permanent trees are not desirable. They 

 greatly complicate orchard operations and under treatment meant 

 primarily for the permanent trees they are neither " fish, flesh, 

 fowl, nor good red herring." Fillers of quick-bearing varieties of 

 the same fruit, especially the apple, may often be used to advantage. 

 There should be as many " outside rows " as possible. That is, 

 the trees should be far enough apart for each to develop in full its 

 individuality; for every fruit-grower knows that the trees on the 

 outside of his orchard produce most fruit, since they get most air, 

 sunshine, wind, moisture and food. 



IMPOTENCY OF VARIETIES. 



A good deal is being said about the impotency of varieties whereby 

 their fruits do not sell well. Fruit does not set in this region for 

 most part because of frosts, cold weather, rains and heavy winds 

 at blooming time, but still there are some varieties of pears, apples, 

 grapes and plums, at least, that are self-sterile. The remedy is 

 mixed planting of varieties that bloom at the same time. It is 

 important that the fruit of all of the varieties planted have value 



