Making the Rows Straight. 259 



with rags at the ends to prevent injuring the trees, 

 and fill up the trench at two rounds. Then plow 

 the space between the rows. One thing must be very 

 carefully figured out the very first thing, if the hex- 

 agonal style is used (which I prefer and use), and 

 that is, the distances between the rows at right 

 angles, and not diagonally from tree to tree, and 

 then accurately measured and staked on the outer 

 lines. The great Wellhouse orchards, in Kansas, were 

 laid out with the plow. J. H. Hale substituted a 

 60 -cent per day darkey and a mule for a six -dollar 

 surveyor and transit, in laying out his rows for 

 planting his 600 -acre peach orchard in Georgia. 



"Laying out with a line. For small orchards of an 

 acre or two, I have often practiced a method of 

 laying out in the hexagonal style, which is very 

 quickly and easily done. As many stakes are pro- 

 vided as there are trees to be set. A wire is pre- 

 pared of the exact length that the trees are to be 

 apart, and a ring or loop twisted in at each end, 

 by which to hold it. A base line is established by 

 setting stakes just where each tree will be in the first 

 row. One person (A) slips a finger through one 

 ring, and another (B) takes the other end of the 

 wire and runs a small stick through the ring. A 

 holds his end exactly at stake 1, and B steps to 

 where he supposes the first tree of the second row 

 will come, and with the point of his stick marks a 

 small segment of a circle on the ground. He remains 

 there while A goes to stake 2 and holds his end 

 exactly to it. B describes another arc on the 



