128 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



thing lower in quality than a Baldwin. A well-grown Baldwin is 

 good enough for anybody. 



Next I want to say just a word on the matter of soils, because I 

 feel that very often we make a mistake in the place we put our dif- 

 ferent plantations. We do not know as much about soils as we 

 ought to, but we do know that the Baldwin, for instance, demands 

 a very different type of soil from the Rhode Island Greening. We 

 know the soil requirements of the Northern Spy and some other 

 of our main varieties. And yet you will very often see Baldwins 

 planted where there ought to be Rhode Island Greenings; and 

 Rhode Island Greenings where there ought to be Baldwins. That 

 I think needs more consideration on the part of the average 

 planter than is usually given to it. 



In the matter of setting: I think we ought to be much more 

 particular than we ordinarily are in laying and setting out the 

 orchard. This is one of my hobbies, and yet I think it is a good, 

 legitimate hobby. It is common to see the old orchard laid out 

 without any care at all, and you find this the case even in up-to- 

 date young commercial orchards. In my experience it is not a 

 serious matter to set out an orchard so carefully that the trees 

 row nicely in every direction, and I certainly feel that while you 

 may call it drawing the point rather fine, it makes a great dif- 

 ference in the general appearance of the orchard, and to me makes 

 enough difference so I would be perfectly willing to pay the small 

 extra expense which there might be. I do not think myself that 

 there need be any great extra cost. I believe you can put in an 

 orchard in a proper manner at just about the same expense that 

 you can put one in haphazard. 



Next the question as to the distances of the trees apart. I 

 think very frequently we make a mistake by getting the trees too 

 close together. That varies, of course, with soils, and particu- 

 larly with varieties; but I have pretty nearly become convinced 

 that we never ought to plant trees of the standard variety at less 

 than forty feet apart. I know that some of our excellent authori- 

 ties do not agree with me on that, and of course I do not expect them 

 to. If we were paying $2000 an acre as they do for bearing orchards 

 out West, it would be a different matter; but our land is not so 

 high priced that we cannot afford a few feet more, and I am sure 



