GENERAL PRACTICE. ORCHARDS. 85 



In preparing for planting in pasture, or tillage ground to be sown down at once to 

 grass, the ground should be marked out in stations. This necessarily implies the 

 distance at which the trees are to be planted, and their arrangement. The rows should, 

 where practicable, run from north to south, or, if they have other directions, from north- 

 east to south-west is preferable. The distance apart depends on the varieties, and their 

 habits ; upright-growing kinds are accommodated in less space than spreading ones, but 

 the gravest mistake made in planting is placing the permanent trees too close. It is 

 vain looking for abundant crops of good fruit when the heads of the trees grow into 

 each other, and the soil is constantly shaded. Plenty of space favours a spreading and 

 sturdy habit, and trees with well-developed heads yield more fruit, also brighter and 

 finer, than is possible from others which have their energies stifled through lack of air and 

 light. Trees of similar size, though different in variety, and those ripening their fruit 

 at the same time, should be kept together. Seeking uniformity or equal distances often 

 results in the trees being given too little space ; therefore in setting out, wherever there 

 is more space than is required for one tree, yet not enough for two, by all means decide 

 in favour of one. 



In planting in grass or arable land under shallow culture, excavations should be 

 made, 6 to 9 feet in diameter, throwing the top spit on one side, breaking up the 

 bottom below the next spit, removing any bad soil or clay within 18 inches of the 

 surface, adding good soil in place of the bad, or improving the bottom soil by additions 

 of old mortar rubbish or road scrapings. The top spit should have similar additions, 

 chopping up the turf. By these means the soil will be raised somewhat above the 

 surrounding level, and if done some little time before planting, it will be greatly 

 improved as a rooting medium. Where the soil is wet, or very stiff, holes made in 

 impervious strata are traps for water, and if drains are not laid to conduct it away 

 the trees cannot thrive. In well-prepared and hence friable soils, holes large enough 

 to admit the roots, or a little more, and 18 to 24 inches deep, will suffice, the bottom 

 being broken up with a pick. The roots must be spread out, broken ends cut off, and 

 good soil placed round them. They should not be covered deeper than they were in 

 the nursery, as indicated by the earth-mark on the stems, and when completed the 

 ground over the roots will or should be slightly raised above the surrounding level. A 

 stout stake driven down to the solid bottom as a support for each tree when planted is 

 a decided advantage, but in securing the stem there must be no abrasion of the bark. 

 Stout willow stems (osiers) placed round with a twist between the stem and the stake 



