Fruits to Supply a Family. 133 



aged grape-vines will contribute materially to the variety and excel- 

 lence of the supply. The fourth of an acre of well cultivated vine- 

 yard will be sufficient to furnish several pounds of fresh grapes daily 

 through the autumn and winter months. 



The extent of ground required will be about ten or twelve square 

 rods for the different summer fruits, and an acre and a half or two 

 acres more for all the others except the winter apples. A plantation 

 of dwarf apples and dwarf pears will enable the owner to reduce 

 considerably this extent of ground. 



PLAN OF A FRUIT GARDEN. 



The accompanying plan of an acre fruit garden shows the num- 

 ber and disposition of the trees of each kind. It is represented as 

 a square, but may be varied in form to an oblong shape, planting 

 about the same number of trees in fewer or more rows, as the case 

 may be. It is so arranged that although the trees are of different 

 sizes and at different distances, the rows run both ways, and admit 

 readily of horse-cultivation. The plums are placed in a row at one 

 side, in order that pigs and poultry may be confined exclusively 

 among them during the season of the curculio, which proves one of 

 the most efficient means for its destruction ; and in connection with 

 knocking on sheets, will afford good crops under any circumstances, 

 if fully and efficiently applied. A movable or hurdle-fence, separat- 

 ing the plums from the rest of the trees, renders the remedy many 

 times more efficient than if these animals were allowed the whole 

 range of the fruit garden. In some places, where the curculio is par- 

 ticularly destructive, cherries and early apples are also attacked ; in 

 which case, as these fruits are next to the plum row, all may be 

 included in the pig-yard, if desired. 



Autumn and winter apples arl not required in an enclosure of this 

 kind, and the early sorts are placed here only to protect them from 

 being stolen, besides the reason last named. 



Pears may be planted with standards and dwarfs together in the 

 same row, the dwarfs bearing and flourishing while the others are 

 coming forward ; or they may be placed in separate rows. The 

 peaches, if in rows twenty feet apart, and twelve and a half feet in 

 the row, will have quite enough room at any age, provided the long 

 limbs are thinned-in from the outside every two or three years. 

 With this care, apples may be planted much nearer than usual. 

 None of the trees stand on exact squares ; the importance of pre- 

 serving straight rows for cultivation being greater than the form of 



