The Caxadiax Horticulturist. 53 



SETTING AND CULTIVATING THE ORCHARD. 



HEN the trees are taken from the nursery, the roots should be all 

 dug out as long as convenient, and with as little mutilation as 

 possible. Better have a crooked top or no top at all than to have 

 bad roots. The roots should not be allowed to dry, either before 

 setting out or after. The orchard land, however, should be dry, 

 either naturally or by drainage. If the soil be sandy and dry it 

 will need the more mulching. Leached ashes on sandy soil is a 

 good thing. 



The trees, if apple, should be planted not less than 25 feet apart, the rows 

 in the square form. If the ground is very rich, the subsoil should be mixed 

 with the surface soil. The trees should be set in moist, compact soil, neither 

 too muddy nor too dry, as the roots need both water and air. 



If the roots are likely to suffer from drought, dig the earth away till it is 

 mostly removed from the upper roots, then apply enough water to wet the roots 

 to the bottom. One pail of water thus applied is better than five thrown on the 

 surface. After the water has all soaked into the ground, the earth should be 

 replaced about the tree. A good mulching of straw, hay, or strawy manure to 

 keep the sun from drying the ground around the tree, should be applied when 

 the trees are set. The sun both summer and winter oft^n damages the south 

 side of young trees. 



While the orchard is young it should be planted with some crop that 

 requires cultivation, such as corn or roots. After a few years it may be seeded 

 down and pastured. There is a great variety of opinion as to the best time for 

 pruning. Probably as good a time as any is at the close of winter, just before 

 the sap begins to run. 



Tiverton, Ont. A. H. Cameron. 



Note by Editor. — Twenty-five feet is too close to set apple trees ; thirty 

 feet is the minimum distance, and that only for the weaker, such as Early 

 Harvest, or upright growers like the Northern Spy. And yet on rich land even 

 these would require more room. For strong growers, on rich land, forty feet 

 apart each way is quite near enough. Some Greening apple trees at Maple- 

 hurst, set forty feet apart, are interlacing their branches, and would bear a still 

 greater distance to advantage. 



Regarding the seeding down and pasturing of the apple orchard, a good 

 deal might be said, and we will discuss the subject fully at another time. But 

 briefly we must say that in general it is a bad practice to leave an orchard in 

 grass more than a year or two at a time. Pasturing with sheep, which eat the 

 fallen apples, and which will not gnaw the trees if fed a daily ration of grain, is 

 about the only condition under \»hich an apple orchard will thrive without 

 cultivation. One of the reasons why apple orchards in Ontario have been so 

 unfruitful in past years is want of cultivation ; the apple tree needs and will pay 

 for as good treatment as corn or potatoes, and indeed it will yield far better 

 returns for the labor put upon it. Only this season, Mr. D. J. McKinnon, a fruit 

 grower at Grimsby who who is an excellent cultivator, reports an average yield 

 of five barrels per tree of marketable apples from his bearing trees, which, at the 

 lowest calculation, are worth $5 per tree. True, next year may not be a bearing 

 year, but would not even $50 per acre be a sufficient return to warrant the best 

 care and cultivation ? 



