ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 15 



years longer at the least, before they will begin to 

 crowd the permanent standards. During these five 

 years, if the orchard has a paying management at all, 

 they will easily pay all the expenses of the enterprise, 

 and should leave a substantial balance of profit. 



As this system of filling, or interplanting, commer- 

 cial orchards is becoming more and more common, the 

 suitability of dwarf trees, for this purpose, becomes 

 more generally evident. 



3. For school gardens. Thus far school gardens 

 in America have been mostly temporary and experi- 

 mental affairs. But we are already satisfied that they 

 have come to stay, and that gardening in some form 

 will be a permanent feature of the curriculum in many 

 of our best schools. As soon as a school garden be- 

 comes a permanent institution, with ground of its 

 own to be held in use year after year, the dependence 

 on annual crops will give way to the use of various 

 perennial plants, shrubs and trees. 



And among these dwarf fruit trees will naturally 

 be one of the first introductions. Their small size 

 adapts them to the school premises, their habit of 

 early bearing again serves to recommend them most 

 strikingly, and the special opportunity which they 

 offer to pupils to observe details of pruning and other 

 items of tree management, make them almost a first 

 necessity in the permanent school garden. 



4. For covering walls and fences. There are many 

 places about every farm, suburban establishment, or 

 even about many city homes, where back walls and 

 fences could be put out of sight very agreeably by 

 almost any sort of foliage. Various ornamental climb- 



