LAYING OUT THE COMMERCIAL OECHAED. 1 39 



Mr. Underwood: This is a very important question and there 

 seems to be much diversity of opinion as to the best method. I 

 think planters need to be very careful in adopting any rule, and 

 if the experience that I have had is worth anything it is in support 

 of the proposition to plant trees only a reasonable distance apart. 

 We planted an orchard of six thousand "trees that were 14x16 feet 

 apart. The distance came naturally that way because of the grow- 

 ing of nursery stock among them when young. That was too close, 

 and I will tell you why. When those trees came into bearing there 

 was one block of 600 Duchess — and they are a pretty hard)' tree, 

 but as they came into bearing they should have had a great deal of 

 moisture and sustenance; but they did not get enough of it, they 

 choked to death for want of moisture — and I have got to be a crank 

 on the idea that we must have moisture in our orchards. If you 

 plant them so thick that there will be only a few drops of moisture 

 for each tree, how do you expect them to produce a crop of fruit? 

 My 800 Duchess and over 1.500 Wealthy choked to death because 

 they were planted too thick. 



However, you can go to the other extreme of planting them too 

 far apart — but everything must be done with a view to furnishing 

 them enough moisture when thev come into bearing. They get 

 moisture enough when young, thev will live in grass and weeds and 

 by mulching, but my experience is that they will not live a great 

 while in any condition if they are not furnished enough moisture 

 when they come into bearing. Perhaps you can make a success of 

 an orchard in that way. but with me it would mean failure. ' I have 

 tried the other way on a large scale, and I have got all I want of it. 

 It takes a good many men a long time of practical experience 

 to establish the best rule to govern in this case, because it takes a 

 good many years, fifteen to twenty years, before the trees bear large- 

 crops of fruit; but I imagine twenty feet apart would be a good dis- 

 tance to plant, and I would like to have them equal distances apart 

 each way, because in cultivating I want my implements so adjusted 

 that I can thoroughly cultivate one way and then go the other 

 way. Consequently, I prefer to have them planted equal distances 

 apart each way. To explain that point : We are using a spring-tooth 

 harrow. Now the branches of our large trees overlap, as they do 

 in our original planting, the trees are too thick, the branches over- 

 lap some, and we cut them out so the team can walk through the 

 center of the row, a medium sized team without any harness ex- 

 cept names and traces. We spread this harrow apart so it will cul- 

 tivate next the trees, the horses going between, and we go through 

 the orchard in that way. Then we put on a short evener and culti- 

 vate the center of the row. If your trees are different distances 

 apart, your implements will not work so conveniently. If I were 

 to plant an orchard now I would think twenty feet apart each way 

 would be about the right distance, for the reason that it would con- 

 serve the moisture, because otherwise there would not be enough 

 moisture when the trees came into bearing, and they would not have 

 enough sustenance to go through the winter — and another reason 

 would be for convenience in cultivating. 



