42 



APPLE GROWING IN CALIFORNIA. 



planted about thirty feet apart. This distance gives ample room for 

 all the work that must necessarily be done in the orchard, and if prun- 

 ing is properly done there should never be any serious trouble from 

 crowding. Fig. 24 is a young apple orchard at Tehachapi planted 

 30 x 30 square system, which has been well laid out. By setting this 

 distance apart there would be forty-eight trees to the acre. If the 

 hexagonal system were used there would be fifteen per cent more trees, 

 or fifty-five to the acre, with no two trees closer together than thirty 

 feet in this case, the distance between the rows being only twenty- 

 six feet. This method of setting is quite popular because of the extra 

 number of trees that can be planted without crowding. It possesses 

 the disadvantage of leaving less room between the rows for cultivating 

 and hauling fruit. 



DIGGING HOLES. 



Holes should be large enough so that roots may be set with their 

 natural spread and not crowded and twisted together into a small 



Fig. 24. A young apple orchard at Tehachapi. (Original) 



space. Sometimes the difficulty of digging holes is responsible for such 

 a condition of crowding, but trees had better not be set unless the root 

 system can have a fair show from the start. The soil at the bottom of 

 the holes should be loosened to a considerable depth to facilitate deep 

 rooting, and to enable the root system, which is always more or less dam- 

 aged when taken from the nursery, to get a new start quickly. 



It is now quite a general practice to use dynamite in loosening the soil, 

 especially where hardpan exists. There is often much to be gained by 

 its use, but care should be exercised to avoid packing and the consequent 

 defeat of the object for which it was employed. Dynamiting should only 

 be done, in heavy soils with a tendency to run together, at least, when 

 they are dry. If moist there may be a packing or cementing, which is 



