AN IMPROVED PLAN OF ORCHARDING. 153 



of sanity on my part by the gentleman's lack of growth on his 

 part. He is simply advocating the plan of planting an orchard 

 that was in vogue fifty to one hundred years ago, and we in 

 this country have learned that we cannot successfully use that 

 wide system of planting in the colder sections of the country 

 in the west and north-west, and we have also learned that the 

 system of planting he advocates is not practicable. Every man 

 knows that if he plants an orchard of any extent, plants it over 

 an area of five, six or ten acres, he knows that in the course of 

 fifteen years he has no time to cut out any part of that orchard. 

 He cannot cultivate it successfully; he cannot go through the 

 orchard to pick his fruit, and it is not profitable in any manner 

 to plant in that way, and we all know here that cultivation in 

 some form is absolutely essential to orcharding. I concede 

 that the method of planting I have presented to you is entirely 

 different from a>ny system I have ever seen used, and it affords 

 an opportunity to give that cultivation which is so necessary to 

 the successful growth of an orchard, and the cultivation can be 

 carried on with trees twelve feet apart. For a number of years 

 that orchard can be kept clean, and when we can no longer cul- 

 tivate between the rows, and have kept that space thoroughly 

 cultivated and thoroughly enriched, that strip of trees can be 

 irrigated with success. The gentleman has said that twenty - 

 five years is the extent of the life of a profitable orchard in 

 Illinois, and we can in this country grow on that strip of land 

 from twenty five to fifty per cent more fruit on the same land, 

 and on half the land in twenty years than we can under the old 

 system of orcharding. 



Mr. Dunlap: How high would you trim? 



Mr. Patten: From two and one -half to three feet. I would 

 state for the benefit of your society that this method of plant- 

 ing an orchard was suggested to my mind by my experience as 

 a nurseryman in growing trees by having a block of trees left 

 standing; it was suggested to my mind in the first place in this 

 manner, and, as before stated, any one can see at a glance that 

 when the trees come to bear and it becomes necessary to ferti- 

 lize, that there is the best opportunity to drive along on east 

 side of that strip a rod wide, and the driver can throw the man- 

 ure to the center of that orchard with very little work. I would 

 say that on a strip of less than half an acre in extent planted 

 in this way I obtained 175 bushels of apples. Of course, the 

 trees were too thick, and I have an orchard 16 x 20 feet apart. 



