24 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



trees on sod land or land that had been in sod the previous year. As a 

 rnle, it is a great deal better to have, if one can, a corn crop or potato 

 crop off the land the year previous to setting out the orchard. If it is 

 sandy land with a light surface or sub-soil, no further preparation is 

 needed except to fertilize it, and perhaps not much of that. It is not 

 a good idea to have land too well fertilized for planting young orchards. 

 As a rule, with good cultivation, we get a sufficient growth the first 

 year without very much fertilizer. If the land is in sod and the sod 

 is plowed under, the trees will make too much growth the first year, 

 growing too late in the fall, and because of this will be liable to winter 

 kill. Young trees of all kinds this year, that were planted on good land, 

 so far as my observation goes are still very green and very soft and not 

 in good shape to go through the winter. It has been my practice, where- 

 ever possible to plow, if the land was in corn or potatoes the previous 

 year, to fall plow and plow pretty deep. Then, plow again in the spring, 

 using perhaps a little fertilizer, but not very much. 



I have never practiced dynamiting for planting trees, as I do not 

 know enough about it. I do not believe in digging holes for young 

 trees, especially if you have a clay sub-soil. In other words, I would 

 prepare the land so that the entire land as a whole is of a sufficient 

 depth. We can very readily plow eight or ten inches with any ordinary 

 kind of land and that is deep enough for orchard planting. It has been 

 our practice in planting, to mark out our land as we would for corn. 

 II' the frees are to be planted sixteen feet, get on every fourth row. 

 and so on. It has been my practice also, to plant regular distances; 

 that is. sixteen feet or twenty feet, or twenty-four feet, or twenty-eight 

 feet, or thirty-two feet; so that in rowing the crops, the intervening 

 crops, we have our rowing four feet apart, for the rows, if different 

 crops are to be planted in them. It saves a great deal of trouble. The 

 object of marking with a corn marker instead of lining out, is for 

 convenience. In after-cultivation you will not be bothered by having 

 a wide space and then a narrower space. I remember the very first 

 i in hard I ever planted. I lined it up and plowed furrows into which 

 to plant the trees but, instead of marking it, I measured it up and fol- 

 lowed down and all through that orchard every other space or row 

 was wider than the other. We line up and mark out, getting them as 

 straight as we can, just as yon would a corn field — marking both ways. 

 Then, with a good big turning-plow, plowed the furrow of every fourth 

 low. If von are planting sixteen feet, plant on the line the other way. 

 planting crosswise of the furrow. There is nothing scientific about 

 that, but when you gel your orchard planted, you will have a very uni- 

 form and straighl lot of rows, more so than by any other way that 

 I know of and it will bo done with much less expense, in one-fourth 

 of the time and give you a better jot). After you have set the rows 

 in this way. there may possibly be some trees a little off the line. If 

 SO, then look over every row and have any tree that is not set as it 

 should be, straightened up. You will, in this way, get your orchard 

 out with less exertion, trouble and expense than in any other way. You 

 cannot do that on sod ground. There are no holes to dig. The big 

 furrow is hole enough to set the tree in. Of course, these trees are one 



