42 Fruit-growing in Arid Regions 



Plans, and Distances for Planting 



The plan of laying out the orchard and the distances 

 for planting are points on which growers do not all agree, 

 for questions are involved that may he considered personal 

 and not necessarily essential. 



All things considered, the square or rectangular method 

 of planting seems to be the most satisfactory. It allows 

 of cultivation two ways, and where our fields are mostly 

 squares or rectangles, it is practically the simplest plan of 

 laying out. 



Another plan is that known as the hexagonal system. 

 With the trees the same distance apart, about 15 

 per cent more trees can be planted to the acre than with 

 the rectangular system. The trees alternate in the ad- 

 jacent rows, and the rows are crowded together so that 

 all adjacent trees are equally distant from each other. 

 The plan is well illustrated in Figure 3. Set on the square 

 30 x 30 feet, 48 trees may be planted to the acre; with the 

 hexagonal system, 55 trees may be planted to the acre, 

 with no spaces between adjacent trees less than thirty 

 feet. While the hexagonal plan allows of planting more 

 trees to the acre, it leaves no wide middles. It is not only 

 a question of having the trees far enough apart to prevent 

 their interlocking, but the middles must be wide enough to 

 accommodate orchard machinery. The figure shows that 

 while the trees are 30 feet apart, the widest middles are 

 only 26 feet. If the grower insists upon planting 55 trees 

 to the acre, leaving the rows 30 feet apart, and crowding 

 the trees to 26 feet in the row would probably be more 

 satisfactory in the long run. 



