ORCHARDS. 121 



ORCHARDS. 



WORCESTER NORTH. 



From the Report of the Committee. 



A poor tree is not worth transi)laiiting even if ol)taincd as a 

 gift, wliilo a good tree is cheap at double the price usually 

 paid. In purchasing trees for an orchard, regard should also 

 be had to the distance from the ground at which the lower 

 litnbs start out from the trunks. As there is no doubt that 

 the whole ground of an orchard for some years at least after 

 planting, if not for its whole existence, should be kept under cul- 

 tivation, and as this can be done easier with the plough than the 

 spade, it becomes necessary that the lowest branches should be 

 out of the way of the yoke and horns of oxen, or the harness 

 and back of the horse. For this purpose it has been found by 

 experience that five feet from the surface of the ground is the 

 least distance at which the limbs should be allowed to remain. 



So too in orchard culture. Apple trees should be set out at 

 least two rods apart ; otherwise, when mature growth is 

 attained, the branches of adjoining trees will interfere with 

 each other, compelling them to tend upward for light and air, 

 and thus subjecting the owner to the trouble and hazard of 

 ascending lofty trees to gather his fruit. 



In regard to the danger of making the apple tree grow too 

 rapidly, particularly those varieties which are adapted to our 

 climate, we apprehend that all fear in that respect is well-nigh 

 groundless. The object of the orchardist should be to obtain 

 trees large enough to produce something worth harvesting 

 before they begin to bear fruit. Wiiat he wants in the first 

 place is ^good-sized tree; and there need be no fear that the 

 Baldwin, Rhode Island Greening, Roxbury Russet, Hubbards- 

 ton. Peck's Pleasant, Gravenstein, Porter, William's and such 

 like kinds will grow too fast. The subscriber has an orchard, 

 and there are others in this vicinity similar, the trees of which 

 were set out only ten, eleven, or twelve years ago, and this 

 season many of them have borne four or five barrels of large, 

 fair fruit, and at the same time have made a growth at the 

 end of the limbs of from one to two feet. The trunks of some 

 16 



