300 BULLETIN 226. 



About one-fourth of the orchards in Walworth township were planted 

 on the quincunx system with the rows 20 feet apart and the trees 40 feet 

 apart in the row. This makes the trees in squares 28.4 x 28.4 feet, 

 cornerwise of the field. Some nurserymen recommended this system 

 with the idea of removing every other row, so as to leave the trees 40 x 40 

 feet. A few growers did this before much damage had been done by 

 crowding, and may have secured enough fruit from the extra trees to 

 pay for the increased labor which these trees necessitated. 



Outside of Walworth this system was much less used, but the trees 

 averaged almost the same distance apart. Rather than blame the nursery- 

 men who recommended the thinning system, as some have done, we 

 should give them credit for being better informed than most persons of 

 that time, for they recognized that mature trees would need to be 40 x 40 

 feet. Other persons planted equally close without having any idea that a 

 part would need to be. cut out. 



This system may be all right if carried out, but it is certainly not to 

 be recommended to the general public. Few people have the courage to 

 cut down good, thrifty trees. If they do thin them it is usually not done 

 until the trees have been greatly damaged all the lower limbs killed. 

 It will be better for most persons to leave out half the trees and raise 

 crops in the orchard for a few more years, or plant some short-lived fruit 

 like peach-trees, that will die before the apple-trees need the room. 



Effect of close planting on yield and health. The more trees per acre 

 the less the yield. The average yield for four years of orchards where 

 the trees are not over 30 x 30 feet apart is 186 bushels ; for those over 

 30 x 30 feet but not over 35 x 35 feet, 222 bushels ; for those over 35 x 35 

 feet, 229 bushels. (See table 24.) 



The question is still more important than these figures indicate. In 

 many orchards the trees are being ruined because they are so close 

 together. In Orleans county more growers have removed half the trees, 

 but few in Wayne county have yet done so, and more attention needs 

 to be given to the question. Farmers usually fail to notice what is hap- 

 pening until the trees have been greatly damaged. The decrease in yield 

 does not call attention to the trouble till it is too late. When the tops 

 begin to meet so as to shut out the light from the lower limbs it is time 

 to cut out half the trees. (See Fig. 59.) If this is not done the lower 

 limbs first bear inferior fruit, then no fruit, and finally die. The changes 

 take place so gradually that the owner usually fails to realize what is 



