OF FRUIT TREES. 53 



estimated according to their number onty, but their 

 size and weight, as well as their superiour flavour. 

 Another advantage is the profit of cultivating the 

 ground under and about the trees. The intervening 

 spaces may be cultivated with various vegetables, or 

 if preferred, they may be filled with some temporary 

 trees of small growth, as dwarfs, wMch may be remov- 

 ed when the principal standards have attained to a 

 large size. Many apple trees have borne fruit for 

 more than a century ; and when trees show signs of 

 decay at the age of thirty or forty years, it is in gene- 

 ral to be attributed to mismanagement, and probably 

 to close planting. Every cultivator must have ex- 

 perienced the great inconvenience occasioned by nar- 

 row and crowded intervals. When apple trees stand 

 at the distance of twenty -five or thirty feet only, their 

 horizontal branches will, as we frequently see, in 

 fifteen or twenty years interlope each other, and al- 

 most entirely obstruct the intervals between them. 

 Taking into view, therefore, the foregoing particu- 

 lars, the cultivator, in planting a young orchard, will 

 determine for himself the most convenient and suita- 

 ble width of the intervals between his trees. The 

 inost generally approved distance is forty feet in all 

 directions, and this gives twenty seven trees to an 

 acre, while at thirty feet apart, an acre will contain, 

 forty-eight trees, and at thirty-five feet distance, thir- 

 ty-five trees occupy an acre. 



With respect to the most proper season for plant- 

 ing apple trees in the United States, different opin- 

 ions prevail. According to Dr. Mease, no general 

 rule can be given, owing to the immense variety of 

 climates with which we are favoured. In some states, 

 the autumn may be best, while in others (in Pennsyl- 

 vania) it is probable that early in the spring answers 

 best. Indeed, in a comparative experiment of spring 

 and autumn planting, made near Philadelphia, it 



