Winter Meeting. ' 223 



this is of the utmost importance. Upon your judgment, right here, 

 depends your success or failure in the apple business. You must 

 know something about the habits and requirements of the young 

 trees. If the soil and location are not in a measure congenial to 

 the habits of the young trees, you would better throw the trees out 

 of the way and go at something else, for, if you plant them on un- 

 suitable land, failure is your portion. I do not mean to say that 

 some defects of the land may not be remedied. But I do say that 

 some land, however fertile, is not adapted to the growing of apple 

 trees. 



Then you ask, what kind of land is required for an apple or- 

 chard? In endeavoring to answer this question, I shall not at- 

 tempt to give a chemical analysis of the soils best adapted to grow- 

 ing apple trees, but will endeavor to give such a description of a 

 location suitable for an orchard, that an ordinarily careful observer 

 of farming lands may have no difficulty in selecting the suitable 

 and rejecting the unsuitable location. Then, in my estimation, the 

 first and most important requisite of the land is drainage, both 

 surface and subsoil, for which fertility is desirable, and a reason- 

 able amount absolutely necessary for a healthy growth, fertility 

 can be supplied; and worn land, otherwise suitable, can be "built 

 up." But flat land, with a heavy, compact subsoil, cannot be made 

 good orchard land, even with heavy manuring. One need not ex- 

 pect a vigorous, long-lived, productive orchard on damp, flat land 

 or even rolling land, if it is damp and springy. Another point quite 

 worthy of consideration, is the altitude as compared with adjoin- 

 ing lands. I should never recommend planting in a valley, with 

 high hills surrounding, for fear of late frosts. For the same reason 

 I should prefer higher rolling ground, with a tendency to drain to 

 the north and west, rather than to the south and east. Having 

 selected the location (supposing it to be land already in cultiva- 

 tion), I should plow it deeply in the fall, and as soon as it could 

 be worked in the spring, I should proceed with disc and harrow 

 (and drag, if necessary), to thoroughly prepare, as though I in- 

 tended to plant corn; then with a plow mark off the land both 

 ways, east and west, north and south. Here I would add a word 

 of caution, as to the distance of planting the trees apart. Al- 

 though some allowance may be made for the difference in the 

 growth of the different varieties, I should never plant any va- 

 riety closer than 32 feet each way; and in fairly strong land, the 

 more vigorous kinds should be planted 36 feet each way. They 

 may seem very thin on the ground for the first three or four years. 



