172 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



LAYING OUT THE PLUM ORCHARD AND HANDLING 

 THE TREES AND PLANTING. 



AUGUST WITTMANN, MERRIAM PARK. 



An orchard may be laid out in various ways without diminish- 

 ing the bearing qualities of the trees, but if one wishes to lay out a 

 good sized orchard it is best to plant the trees in crosswise fashion so 

 that each tree has its proper place. By a nicely laid out orchard the 

 planter shows his skill, and the trees being planted in regular rows 

 makes cultivating the ground more convenient. The laying out of 

 an orchard is a very important matter and should be done right in 

 the first place. It is necessary to have a line and a pole, say fourteen 

 feet long, or so long as one wishes to set the trees apart. The di- 

 rections of north and south should first be ascertained, and placing at 

 both ends of the first rows a stake or marker, the line should then be 

 drawn east and west and staked off a pole's length apart. I now 

 take the plow and plow the land north and south in narrow pieces, so 

 that each furrow runs directly from one stake to the other. I plow 

 the land deep enough, so that the furrow is deep enough to plant my 

 trees in. I arrange the ground on the proper places where a tree is 

 going to be set to allow lots of room for the roots. Before planting 

 one should always dip the trees in a pool of water and earth prepared 

 for the purpose. 



Trees that are obtained from the nursery are generally tall and 

 slender with but few roots. A fine looking tree without regard to 

 roots seeming to be the idea, which I have found to be all wrong. 

 What we need in this climate is a tree with low branches and a good 

 supply of strong, frost proof roots. Trees which have not been 

 forced in growing are, in my opinion, the best orchard trees. 



There is apparently a great difference of opinion regarding the 

 depth at which a tree should be planted, some maintaining it should 

 be set from twenty-four to thirty inches in the ground to protect the 

 roots from frost, avoid excessive drought and to get a tree on its own 

 roots. My experience has been that if I plant a tree from eighteen 

 to twenty-four inches in the ground, I have to wait till the tree forms 

 new roots over the old ones, which requires about ten years to get the 

 tree in a good fruit bearing condition, the old roots hardly being able 

 to keep the tree alive. Up to the sixth and seventh year, the tree 

 shows but little life, after which it generally begins to pick up. I 

 have noticed that from the tenth to the sixteenth year these trees 

 bear fruit very sparingly compared with other trees of the same size. 



The nearer I plant a tree to the surface, the sooner they come in 

 fruit bearing. If I plant a tree so that the top roots are covered with 

 three or four inches of ground, they will generally bear fruit the 



