44 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



I believe in setting out orchard trees with the expectation 

 of getting the best results, and so growing them as to get the 

 best results, in six to eight years. With the Spy you could 

 get a result in eight years. You should get a certain amount 

 of fruit from Baldwins in eight ^-ears, and some people will 

 get results ; but with such varieties as the Mcintosh, the 

 Wealthy, the Duchess and the Ilubbardston, and quite a num- 

 ber of others, you can get profitable results in from five to 

 seven years. To do that, in the first four years I should 

 grow those trees fast, but not so fast as to make sappy growth. 

 I should use a lot of nitrogen if the soil wasn't such as to con- 

 tain it ; but in the fourth or fifth year I should substitute for 

 the nitrogen heavy basic slag or potash, or some such element. 

 With Mcintosh, Wealthy, Duchess and Hubbardston, I 

 should jDlan to get profitable crops within five years. I am 

 making those varieties do that. 



]\rr. J. A. Wilt.ia:ms. Would you recommend setting out 

 peach trees in between apple trees in a young orchard, thus 

 getting a growth of peaches before the apples come into bear- 

 ing? 



Mr. Drew. A great many successful orchard men are do- 

 ing that, and still there is an element of danger in it. As a 

 general rule, you can get results from ])eaches in three or four 

 years, and a peach tree spreads out, and generally when any- 

 body sees the mone}'' coming in from peaches — and certainly 

 it is good money when it comes in — he thinks he can keep 

 the trees two or three years longer, and be so much richer, 

 and that is a detriment to the apple trees. As a rule, if I 

 were planting by the filler system 1 should use a variety of 

 apples like the Baldwin or Greening, and then plant in the 

 filler of ^Mcintosh, Wealthy, Duchess or Yellow Transparent, 

 or something of that class. The Duchess makes a good filler. 



]\rr. Willia;ms. What do you advise for a distance in set- 

 ting out an orchard of that kind ? 



Mr. Drew. I should set my Baldwins .50 feet apart in 

 some soils, — in most soils from 40 to 45 feet apart, — and 

 interplant half that space each way with fillers. In the north- 

 ern sections of Xew Hampshire and ]\Iaine, where the trees 

 tend to dwarf growth, you might set them closer; but in 



