LAYING OUT THE ORCHARD 91 



QUINCUNX PLANTING 



There is much confusion in the use of this term in this State. It 

 is, in fact, made to cover almost every kind of arrangement which is 

 not on the square. Webster defines the term to mean "the arrangement 

 of things, especially of trees, by five in a square, one being placed in 

 the middle of a square." Trees set in quincunx would stand as shown 

 in the accompanying diagram. To locate them in this form it is only 

 necessary to proceed as already described for planting in squares, by 

 fixing upon the base line and locating two side lines to it at right 

 angles. Place the stakes on these two lines just half the distance 

 desired between the trees, and have the measuring wire long enough 

 to reach across from one line to the other. Near one end of the wire 

 place another mark just half way between the end and the first tree 

 mark; that is, if the trees are to be twenty- four feet apart in the 

 squares, this additional mark should be twelve feet from the end of 

 the wire. Now set the first row with the end of the wire at the corner 

 stake, and set stakes at each twenty-four foot mark. 



Proceed now to the first half-way stake, and instead of putting the 

 end of the wire at this stake, put the twelve-foot mark there. Put 

 stakes now at each twenty-four foot mark again to locate the trees 

 in that row. In the next row put the end of the wire at the first stake 

 and proceed as in the first row* Thereafter using the end of the wire 

 and the twelve-foot marks alternately, the stakes will be set in quincunx 

 all over the field. If the midway stakes are now pulled out along the 

 two side lines, the remaining stakes show where the trees are to be 

 placed. This way of planting locates about 78 per cent more trees 

 upon any given area, but it brings the trees at irregular distances 

 from each other, and except in furnishing a way to arrange an orchard 

 with permanent and temporary trees, there does not seem to be any 

 advantage in it. 



PLANTING IN EQUILATERAL TRIANGLES 



This is the arrangement generally implied when the term "quin- 

 cunx" is wrongly employed. By it the trees are all equally distant from 

 each other, and thus the ground divided as equally as possible. The 

 arrangement admits 1 5 per cent more trees to the acre than the setting 

 in squares, and the ground can be worked in three different directions. 

 This arrangement also gives better facilities for irrigation. Objections 

 are urged to it, however, in that it does not admit of thinning trees 

 by removal of alternate rows, as is sometimes desirable, and that one 

 has to take a zigzag course in driving through the orchard. 



Hexagonal planting places the trees as shown in the accompanying 

 sketch. 



It is termed hexagonal because, as the figure consists of six trees 

 inclosing a seventh, a line drawn through the encompassing trees 

 make a hexagon. It is also called septuple planting, because seven 

 trees enter into its figure. 



An orchard can be laid out in hexagonals by using the measuring 

 wire as described for quincunx planting with the distance and half- 



