72 THE SUBURBANITE'S HANDBOOK 



Having thus introduced the subject of DIRECT COMPETI- 

 TION as a stage in advance of mere "CONNECTION AS FILL- 

 ERS," let us look into its capabilities a little more in detail. Fig. 

 60 shows a COMPETITIVE plan for laying out a dwarf tree or- 

 chard or garden. Here we take a piece of suitable land, 165x264 feet, 

 which equals one acre of 43,560 feet, and lay out three eight-foot 

 roadways, as shown, dividing the plot into four one-quarter acre 

 lots, each being 41*4 feet wide and 264 feet long. Right here comes 

 the first question to be decided regarding the style of trees to be 

 planted and the distance apart. We have bushes at four by four feet 

 apart, and oblique, upright and U shaped cordons to select from. 

 Let us compare the merits of each. With bushes at four by four feet 

 apart we could plant eight rows in each quarter acre, with 66 bushes 

 in each row. That would allow 528 bushes to the quarter acre, or 

 2,112 bushes to the full acre. These would come into bearing the 

 second year, and by the fourth year one bushel per bush might fairly 

 be expected ; that would be about 5% bushels in the first four years 

 from planting, or 11,616 bushels per acre ; and observe here that an 

 orchard of standard trees, planted at the same time, would hardly 

 show a solitary apple, although there might be 40 of them on the acre. 



Now let us consider oblique and upright cordons, which amount 

 to about the same, the oblique having 25 per cent more bearing wood 

 than the upright cordons. The cordons may be planted two by four 

 feet apart. There would still be eight rows four feet apart in each 

 quarter acre, but only two feet apart in the rows, or 132 cordons 

 in each row ; we would thus have 4,224 cordons to the acre, and would 

 practically bear the same quantity as the bushes above described, or 

 4,224 bushels the fourth year, or 23,232 bushels in the first four years. 



This is almost beyond belief, but is merely the result of in- 

 tensive culture, a system as yet only in its infancy. Wonderful as 

 the above results may appear, the next plan will double up the yield. 

 Instead of planting bushes or plain cordons we advance a step and 

 plant U shaped cordons (see Fig. 60). We just double the bearing 

 wood on the same number of trees. U cordons being planted at two 

 by four feet apart. This last proposition I leave you to figure out 

 for yourselves, and yet that does not reach the limit by any means, 

 for we may further intensify intensive culture by planting those 

 cordons at only 18 inches apart in the row, which may be safely 

 accomplished. But I must stop here or my readers will think I am 

 "giving them a pipe dream." I will therefore only repeat here the 



