138 THE SMALL COUNTRY PLACE 



the apples, as they are short lived and an income may be 

 expected after from four to six years, that will ma- 

 terially aid in paying expenses, and under favorable con- 

 ditions might pay all expenses to date. In the accom- 

 panying scheme standard varieties of apples like the 

 Baldwin, King, Spy, etc., are planted forty to fifty feet 

 apart, with "fillers," varieties that come into bearing 

 early and make rather small trees, like Hubbardston, 

 Wealthy, etc., set in between at twenty to twenty-five 

 feet distance. Upon rather light land where the trees 

 will not grow to very large size this distance may be 

 forty feet for the permanent trees and twenty for 

 the fillers. If the land is suitable and is on an elevation, 

 with a north or western exposure, peach trees may be 

 used as fillers, but if on a southern exposure they will 

 not do as well unless the elevation is quite high above 

 the surrounding land. 



At these distances crops of vegetables or any other 

 hoed crop may be planted among the trees for six to 

 eight years, though these crops will not prove as profit- 

 able among the trees as in open fields by themselves. 



Cultivation. 



If hoed garden crops are grown among the trees this 

 is all the cultivation needed, but fertilization material 

 sufficient for both crops must be applied or the trees will 

 suffer. Frequently, however, it may be best not to grow 

 any crop under or between the trees, in which case the 

 cultivation must be wholly charged to the orchard and 

 the cost reduced to the lowest possible point. The mod- 

 ern orchard wheel shears or spring-tooth harrows are 

 so arranged that the blades are carried out by a 

 spreader beyond the track of the horses and will 

 work up close to the trees without endangering them 

 with the eveners or whiffletrees. With one of these mod- 



