WEST MICHIGAN FRUIT GROWERS' ASSOCIATION 203 



Committee on New Fruits and Diseases — N. P. Husted, Lowell, chair- 

 man; A. G. Van Hees, Zeeland; A. Adams, Shelby; W. A. Smith, Benton 

 Harbor; J. A. I'caree, (Irand Jiapids; .1. M. Jli^clow, ]>an<^or. 



With the election of officers closed one of the most interesting and suc- 

 cessful meetings ever held by this society, and those frnity;ro\\ers nho 

 were not in attendance missed a rare opportunity of j^ainiug much valu- 

 able information. 



PLANNING AND PLANTING A YOUNG ORCHARD. 



BY MR. A. G. VAN HESS OF ZEELAND. 



The subject allotted to me on the programme is almost too important 

 for a new beginner in the line of horticulture to handle, as a great deal 

 depends on the beginning of every undertaking or enterprise, and espe- 

 cially in planting an orchard. Still, we will try to give our views on the 

 question of planning and planting an orchard. 



A person who intends to set out an orchard has to have a proper knowl- 

 edge of the habits and requirements of the ditferent varieties of fruit 

 trees, and also of the soil. We will call your attention to a few^ of the 

 manifold questions to be decided. Peach and plum trees can stand close 

 planting, while pears and cherries require more room and apples more so 

 (also in regard to the adaptation of the soil for each different variety) 

 and not to plant peach trees like the man who asked Mi\ Morrill "What the 

 matter was with his peach trees, as the}' made a vigorous growth every 

 fall and in the spring the young growth was dead," who was answered 

 by the question "On what soil he had his trees," and his answer w-as "on 

 -a low bottom." And no wonder this man had no success. So we see it 

 is not enough to buy a tree and dig a hole to put it in, as was done by our 

 pioneers forty-five or fifty years ago, or to plant an orchard on unprepared 

 soil, one tree on top of a hillock and the next one in a hollow, where 

 one of the giants of our primitive forest had a I'h^ce, and so making a 

 difference of surface of from three to four feet, causing the latter to become 

 too deep and the first too shallow planted. 



As we do not pretend to be able to do justice to this question, I will 

 merely state how I proceeded to plant an orchard: First 1 laid out the 

 field into rows by planting sticks at either end of the field thirty-three 

 feet apart, for the purpose to plow every row by itself, to get a dead fur- 

 row where I wanted the rows. The field was an old clover and grass r^od, 

 which was plowed under six or seven inches in the last days of June and 

 thoroughly cultivated during the summer. In the fall we set sticks 

 eighteen feet apart in the row, for pears and cherries, and fifteen feet 

 for plums, and apples thirty-three feet square. These sticks were so 

 placed that the lines were as straight as the eye could see, which gives 

 a beautiful appearance to an archard. The trees were planted in the fall, 

 and the next year the soil was plowed with a one-horse plow toward the 

 rows, which made the field in the row level again. So by this time I had 

 a dead-furrow in the middle again, in which, as far as the plum trees were, 



