70 THE APPLE CULTUBIST. 



CHAPTER III. 



LAYING OUT THE GROUND FOR AN ORCHARD. 



"Now mark out the quincunx in hexagon lines, 

 And orderly stake it for trees or for vines ; 

 If circles or triangles cover the ground, 

 At each intersection the quincunx is found." 



MANY beginners are often at a great loss how to com- 

 mence laying out an orchard correctly, so that the trees 

 will stand in straight rows, at a right angle, or in the hex- 

 agonal or quincunx order. One can guess at a right angle, 

 in some instances, with satisfactory accuracy; but some- 

 times a person may feel confident that his stakes have been 

 stuck at a right angle, when he has found, to his disappoint- 

 ment, that the angle was surprisingly obtuse, or acute, as 

 the case may be. If the rows are begun crooked, stake 

 after stake may be altered without being able to form 

 straight lines, and with only an increase of the confusion. 

 If the first tree, in a row of fifty, be placed only six inches 

 out of the way, and be followed as a guide for the rest, the 

 last one will deviate fifty times six inches from a right line, 

 even if the first error is. not repeated. We have seen large 

 apple-orchards with rows nearly as crooked as this. To 

 say nothing of the deformed appearance to the eye, crooked 

 rows prove exceedingly inconvenient every time the ground 

 is planted and cultivated with crops in rows. It is a very 

 easy task to mark out the ground for an orchard or vine- 

 yard, having the rows running at right angles, or in the 

 quincunx order, without the aid of a surveyor's compass. 

 The trees should stand in straight rows, first, for the sake 

 of the workmanlike appearance ; and, secondly, for the sake 



