PLANNING FOR THE TREES 81 



the mulch and mound are drawn back, the sun's 

 influence will set the roots at work earlier by 

 far than a spring tree could be planted. 



Other reasons for fall planting are that the 

 weather is more settled, the ground is more 

 manageable, help is more easily secured, and 

 the nurserymen have more time for filling your 

 order. Any time from October 15 until Decem- 

 ber 10 will answer in our climate, but early 

 November is the best. I had decided to plant 

 the trees in this orchard twenty-five feet apart 

 each way. In the forty acres there would be 

 fifty-two rows, with fifty-two trees in each row, 

 or twenty-seven hundred in all. I also decided to 

 have but four varieties of apples in this orchard, 

 and it was important that they should possess a 

 number of virtues. They must come into early 

 bearing, for I was too old to wait patiently for 

 slow-growing trees ; they must be of kinds most 

 dependable for yearly crops, for I had no respect 

 for off years ; and they must be good enough in 

 color, shape, and quality to tempt the most fas- 

 tidious market. I studied catalogues and talked 

 with pomologists until my mind was nearly 

 unsettled, and finally decided upon Jonathan, 

 Wealthy, Rome Beauty, and Northwestern Green- 

 ing, all winter apples, and all red but the last. 

 I was helped in my decision, so far as the Jona- 

 thans and Rome Beauties were concerned, by the 

 discovery that more than half of the old orchard 

 Vvas composed of these varieties. 



