PLANNING FOR THE TREES 81 
the mulch and mound are drawn back, the sun’s 
influence will set the roots at work earlier by 
far than a spring tree could be planted. 
Other reasons for fall planting are that the 
weather is more settled, the ground is more 
manageable, help is more easily secured, and 
the nurserymen have more time for filling your 
order. Any time from October 15 until Decem- 
ber 10 will answer in our climate, but early 
November is the best. I had decided to plant 
the trees in this orchard twenty-five feet apart 
each way. In the forty acres there would be 
fifty-two rows, with fifty-two trees in each row, — 
or twenty-seven hundred in all. I also decided to 
have but four varieties of apples in this orchard, 
and it was important that they should possess a 
number of virtues. They must come into early 
bearing, for I was too old to wait patiently for 
slow-growing trees; they must be of kinds most 
dependable for yearly crops, for I had no respect 
for off years; and they must be good enough in 
color, shape, and quality to tempt the most fas- 
tidious market. I studied catalogues and talked 
with pomologists until my mind was nearly 
unsettled, and finally decided upon Jonathan, 
Wealthy, Rome Beauty, and Northwestern Green- 
ing, —all winter apples, and all red but the last. 
I was helped in my decision, so far as the Jona- 
thans and Rome Beauties were concerned, by the 
discovery that more than half of the old orchard 
was composed of these varieties. 
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