178 HOW TO LIVE IN THE COUNTRY 



Other fruit trees in the orchard can be spaced ac- 

 cording to your judgment; peaches will need fifteen 

 feet and pears from fifteen to twenty-five, but a few 

 varieties demand about as much space as apple trees. 

 The Seckel is one of the small growers, the Bartlett 

 a medium, while the Rostiezer is liable to spread its 

 limbs quite widely. Plums are fond of company, and 

 most varieties do better set rather close together. It 

 is a short-lived tree as a rule and needs very frequent 

 renewing. The new Burbank hybrids and the Japa- 

 nese sorts require about fifteen feet. Cherries take 

 about the same space, but the sweet cherries will do 

 better if given twenty feet. 



It is a secret, not known by even most orchardists, 

 that if trees are headed very low they will fruit 

 earlier than if headed higher. This, of course, pre- 

 vents plowing and cultivating an orchard, but it gives 

 you quick returns for your money. A pear tree 

 headed six or eight feet high will demand eight or 

 ten years to do much in the way of fruit-bearing, but if 

 headed three or four feet from the ground it will give 

 you good returns in three years. Some of the apples 

 will respond quite liberally in the same way. Peaches 

 should always be headed low and plums will be none 

 the worse for it. 



There are two ways whereby a very small country 

 home may increase its varieties of fruit without 

 crowding. In the first place, graft two or three 

 varieties on the same tree; for that matter you may 

 have every large limb a distinct sort but this I 



