176 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



recommended for your careful consideration. When an orchard is 

 planted in this manner after the fillers are removed it will make the trees 

 thirty -three feet apart each way; with some varieties of trees the orchard 

 will be found crowded even at this distance, but it is the writer's opinion 

 that if the orchard is properly handled and pruned each year, from the 

 time planted, that it will not pay to keep the trees after they have 

 reached the age of twenty-six to thirty years. 



Planting the Tree. — After the plan of planting has been decided upon, 

 which should be worked out before time to ship the trees, the actual 

 planting of the tree is perhaps the most important consideration, in the 

 starting of an orchard. Very little pruning should be done on the 

 roots as the nurseryman usually attends to this feature. The top of 

 a tree should not be pruned until after it is planted. A hole should be 

 dug at least eighteen inches in diameter, to admit the roots of the 

 average two-year-old apple tree, and as a rule two feet in diameter is 

 better. The plan should be to plant the tree not over two inches deeper 

 than it stood in the nursery row, which can be told by the ground mark 

 on the trunk of the tree, just. about the brace roots. The trees should be 

 slanted slightly toward the southwest, and care should be taken to 

 get the rows straight each way so that the orchard presents the 

 appearance of a carefully checked field of corn. Just enough dirt should 

 be thrown in over the roots in the bottom of the hole to nicely cover 

 them, and this should be tamped firmly with a liberal use of the heel. 

 It is very important that the soil should be tamped firmly around the 

 roots, making it at least as firm as it was when growing in the nursery. 

 Always plant an apple tree as though you were expecting a drouth. 

 When the hole has been filled half to two-thirds full of dirt, carefully 

 tamped in, two or three buckets of water should be poured in the hole 

 and allowed to soak down. It is perhaps better not to finish filling the 

 hole until the next morning, and then it is well to leave the ground 

 slightly hollow about the tree to catch all rainfall which may come 

 later. If the ground has been properly prepared, following the directions 

 as outlined above, the tree should not receive a set-back by the necessary 

 handling before planting. After the tree is planted it is necessary to 

 prune back the top. As a rule at least one-half the previous year's 

 growth should be cut away, and not over four or five limbs left to bear 

 the head. It is difiicult to describe just the method of pruning, and 

 each tree will need a little different treatment. The writer wishes to 

 state that he is personally acquainted with many of the nurserymen in 

 the state, and that each of these men are a walking encyclopedia on 

 orchard planting, and every new planter should make a liberal use of 

 this fund of information. 



SPRAYING. 



There seems to be something in the atmosphere this spring, that is 

 creating an ususal interest in the care of the apple orchard. There has 

 been more pruning during the months of March and April, than was 

 ever witnessed before in the history of apple growing in Nebraska. 



