108 HORTICULTURAL MANUAL. 



pear have tempted many to plant peaches, dwarf pears, 

 or plums and cherries between the trees both ways, with 

 the intention of taking them out when the permanent 

 trees needed the whole space. But this is not satisfactory, 

 as the double planting interferes with proper culture, the 

 use of cover-crops, spraying, and all needed orchard care, 

 and too often robs the permanent trees before the inter- 

 spaces are cleared. A far better plan is to plant only one 

 way with early bearing varieties of apple or dwarf pear, 

 leaving open spaces north and south for air-circulation, 

 culture, cover-crops, and spraying. At the north where 

 the open spaces are narrowed the strawberry can be profit- 

 ably grown in newly planted orchards. The partial pro- 

 tection from wind-sweep will benefit the plants, and the 

 strawberry rows, with the winter covering of straw raked 

 between the rows, make a good cover-crop in summer and 

 a fair protection of the surface-roots in winter. After 

 picking the second crop the turning under of the rows 

 and the mulching adds needed humus to the soil and 

 benefits the succeeding crop of strawberries as well as the 

 orchard trees. 



115. Distance Apart of Peach, Plum, and Cherry. In 

 peach-growing centres where the trees are properly pruned 

 the usual distance apart is only fifteen feet each way. 

 But farther north, where less cutting back and pruning is 

 done, twenty feet apart is the usual distance. Where 

 orchards of the duke and heart cherries are planted for 

 profit in rows running north and south, twenty feet apart, 

 with thirty-foot spaces between the rows, gives ample room. 

 The Morello varieties are usually planted twenty feet apart 

 both ways in relatively mild climates. In the prairie 

 States the preferred plan is that of planting the Morello 

 varieties and the native plums only twelve feet apart in 

 rows running north and south, with spaces between the 



