72 THE APPLE CULTURIST. 



height of one Benoni-tree, of fine proportions, was twenty- 

 one and a half feet, and from the centre of the body to a 

 point directly below the ends of the lateral branches, was 

 fifteen to seventeen feet on all sides. If the branches of 

 the other trees had spread out laterally with the same ra- 

 pidity, their extremities would have interlocked a distance 

 of four feet on all sides. Some pomologists insist that the 

 distance between apple-trees should never be less than forty 

 feet; while others say thirty feet; and others thirty-three 

 feet ; and some, even forty-eight feet apart. By a proper 

 investigation of this subject, it will be seen that the proper 

 distance will depend on the kind of trees to be transplant- 

 ed. The correct idea is to plant the trees at such a dis- 

 tance apart that, when they have attained their full size, 

 the lateral branches will not interweave each other. If 

 trees be set so close together that the branches of one tree 

 will grow among those on each side of it, the trees will not 

 be as productive or healthy as if they were farther apart. 

 Fruit-trees must be entirely isolated, in order to flourish 

 and be productive. There should always be sufficient space 

 between the tree-tops to permit a person, when gathering 

 fruit, to carry a ladder in an erect position between the 

 trees. If apple-trees stand two rods, or thirty-three feet, 

 apart, in every direction, and if the trees are pruned cor- 

 rectly, from the first and second years of their growth, so 

 that an area of fifteen feet on each side of every tree is 

 properly filled with bearing branches, no one will ever have 

 reason to complain that his trees were planted too closely. 

 It would be a very easy thing to train some kinds of apple- 

 trees to extend their lateral branches twenty feet each way, 

 from the stem of the tree. But there would be no gain in 

 such wide-spreading tree-tops. Most of our influential and 

 experienced pomologists agree as to the distance of thirty- 

 three feet for planting apple-trees, except for certain varie- 



