WINTER MEETING. 131 



In planting your trees, especially if large ones, you will want at least three 

 careful men — one to wash the roots and lower part of the body off clean and exam- 

 ine for borers and to carry the trees, only as fast as needed, to the planters ; then 

 one to hold the tree and churn it briskly and in earnest while number three rakes 

 in loose, mellow soil and works it in under the roots with his hands, mixing in with 

 it some well-rotted barn-yard manure or other non-heating fertilizer. 



If the ground is very dry, some water should be thrown in after the roots are 

 all covered and before the hole is finally filled with a shovel and the tramping done 

 to steady the newly-planted tree. Some use the "loblolly" method, but whatever 

 the plan, the idea is to get dirt packed closely about the roots, large and small. 



It will be also the washer and wormer's duty to cut the broken and battered 

 roots off smoothly with a sharp knife, beveling from the under side. And it will 

 further be his duty to wrap the tree with a strip of white muslin, to prevent the 

 borer fly from laying her eggs in the bark and to keep the sun off the unshaded 

 body the first year, and it is best to do this wrapping before planting. 



The object of the aforesaid ditch is three-fold : First, to furnish escape for 

 surface water in hot weather ; second, to provide moisture to the roots in dry 

 weather, and third, to give depth of loose ground for new tap-roots or anchor 

 roots, to take hold readily and deeply ; and to encourage this latter, a good double- 

 handful of ground bones should be put at the bottom of the hole. 



The distance you plant your trees apart will depend some on the habit of the 

 variety, but in Missouri the average should not be over 25 feet. At first I planted 

 33 feet, then 30, then 25, and lastly 21 feet. And the most certain and most profita- 

 ble orchard within my knowledge contains 160 trees to the acre — only about one 

 rod apart. With a view to economy and longevity, you might plant alternately of 

 long and short-lived varieties, and cut the latter out in due time. For the long- 

 time orchard you might plant Northern Spy. But here, again, something depends 

 on the soil as well as the variety of fruit. Trees may be planted much nearer on 

 thin oak ridge land than on rich prairie or bottom soil. But one thing is certain, 

 and I think settled in this country, and that is, good fruit must be raised mostly 

 on young trees. By the time trees meet at even 21 feet apart, they have done their 

 best service, if not the most of it. Better have the good apples from four young 

 trees than the poor ones from one old tree. And that is the way you may safely 

 figure the matter. 



In order that your trees may be the same distance apart in all directions, they 

 should be planted in triangles instead of squares. This is done by alternating or 

 "zigzaging" two rows together. For instance, you wish to have your trees 21 feet 

 apart in every direction, you will plow your ditches and make your rows IS feet 

 apart, and then plant your trees 21 feet apart in the row. In your first row plant 

 the first tree at the end, and in the second row begin lOJ feet from the end, and so 

 on. 



If you plant trees over three years old, you should reduce the top by cutting 

 back at least one-half of last year's growth, and in doing so use a sharp knife and 

 bevel from the under side, near a good, vigorous bud, that the wound may heal over 

 perfectly and in the shortest time. Now don't regard this as an unimportant mat- 

 ter and neglect it. 



But don't cut off many of the larger limbs the first year, or you may have 

 blood-poison. And if you do cut ofl any such, be sure to wax the wounds over 

 well at the time of cutting. But much better to leave the cutting of the larger 

 limbs until the second year, when the cut will heal over more promptly. But in 

 any case, keep in mind the center stem and avoid making or permitting forks. 



