76 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. Whittiek. I consider this subject one of vast importance to 

 orchardists. I would put them thirty-five or fort^y feet apart each 

 way. A distance of twenty-five feet will do very well at first and 

 until they commence to shade each other, when it will be foand insuf- 

 ficient. The apples will be small and poorly colored. The limbs 

 will die and when cut off the trees will just that much lessen their 

 supply of sap toward the ripening of the fruit. When set forty 

 feet apart and well taken care of, the trees will grow the nearest to 

 perfection. The lower limbs will grow well owing to their being well 

 supplied with sunlight. An acre set in that way will give more sun- 

 light and surface to the apple and tree than when only twenty-five 

 feet apart, and will, therefore, produce much nicer fruit. 



Mr. Nelson. My experience has been different. I would not set 

 over-apart and I think I get the best results from trees set from 

 twenty-two to twentj'-five feet apart. The trees when forty feet 

 apart are not neighbors ; the wind will blow every leaf away, and 

 you can keep no mulch around them, I have heard that trees set 

 twenty feet apart would in twenty years give as good a money return 

 as the same number of trees set forty feet apart. I have an orchard 

 of sixty trees set twenty feet apart which came into bearing in 1856 

 and have borne immense crops of apples ever since. In 1871 I sold 

 the apples raised in that orchard for $410. That orchard will mulch 

 itself and keep the ground mellow. 



