Commercial Fruit Growing 23 



An additional method, with much to recommend it, is to plant the 

 Plums by themselves, 15 ft. apart, and bushes under, with Strawberries 

 between, and the Apples and Pears in separate sections, Dwarfs with 

 cordons up the middle and Strawberries under. It must be borne in 

 mind that when planting a block of one kind of fruit tree it is not wise 

 to plant all of one variety together. More fruit and a better quality will 

 be produced if the advantages of cross fertilization are secured by planting 

 no two adjoining rows of the same variety. 



The best age for planting half-standards and dwarfs is two years, for 

 bushes two or three years. Raspberries are, of course, always canes of one 

 summer's growth. 



The cost of making a plantation will depend upon (a) the expense 

 of preparation, approximate figures of which have already been given; 

 (6) the cost of the trees, which will vary according to variety from 50s. 

 to 70s. per 100 for half -standards, about 150s. per 100 for standards, 

 60s. to 85s. per 100 for dwarfs, 80s. to 100s. per 1000 for bushes, and 

 20s. per 1000 for Raspberries; (c) planting, which will cost Is. 6d. to 2s. 

 per dozen for the trees, 3s. per 100 for the bushes, and IQd. per 1000 

 for the Strawberries. Before planting, all broken roots should be cut 

 with a clean sloping cut, and care should be taken that the soil is shaken 

 well in among the rootlets, which should be trained carefully out from 

 the stock as centre. To make a hole, stick the tree up in the middle, 

 flop shovelfuls of earth lumpy and unbroken on, and then jump on it, 

 is not the way to plant a fruit tree. 



Whether to prune back the top before planting or not is a question 

 on which opinion is divided. Each plan has able advocates, and each 

 side can point to flourishing plantations as proof of success. There seems 

 much force, however, in the argument of one side to the controversy, 

 that when you have harassed a tree by uprooting him he does not want 

 at the same time the additional handicap of amputations at the other 

 end, and it will be found to answer well to leave top pruning until the 

 first winter after planting, when the shoots can be cut hard back, always 

 to an outside bud, with the assurance that they will throw out good 

 strong frame-making growths in the ensuing summer. (See figs. 326 and 

 327.) 



When pruning a young tree, it must not be forgotten that the shoots 

 now so slender will one day be main branches, and will want room to 

 develop. It will therefore not be wise to leave them as thick as the 

 stakes of a basket. If there are a few short thorny growths on the 

 stem, don't cut them off the first year; by leaving them they will assist 

 the development of the bark. Half-standard trees, as a rule, do not 

 want staking, but better stake than allow them to be bent or broken 

 by winds. 



If you stake, tie some sacking or strawband round the tree stem 

 to prevent it rubbing against the stake, bearing in mind that the most 

 virulent of the pests that bother a fruit grower find an entrance through 



