6o 



THE APPLE 



■9 



4 



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Fig. i 6. The hexagonal system 



Trees arranged equidistantly in all directions, 



forming a series of equilateral triangles, or a 



hexagon, with a tree in the center 



GETTING THE MOST IN AN 

 ORCHARD 



Note. A majority of orchards are 

 planted on a plan that is most waste- 

 ful of space, nearly one fourth of the 

 land being unproductive. The vari- 

 ous ways are analyzed on the basis 

 of an acre. 



It is manifestly necessary, in 

 order to get the fullest returns from 

 an orchard, to have every inch of 

 available space occupied to the best 

 advantage during the early years of 

 the tree's growth and plenty of 

 room left for the complete develop- 

 ment of the mature tree, yet it is a 

 fact that one quarter of the space 

 is actually wasted in the great major- 

 ity of orchards. Full-grown apple 

 trees should be at least 40 feet apart 

 for such varieties as the Mcintosh 

 and Hubbardston, 45 feet for the Baldwin, Greening, etc., and in many cases 

 50 feet is not too great. Yet one cannot afford to plant trees so far apart and 

 wait for them to come to full 



bearing ; he must occupy the Qk £j* p 



space between the permanent „-' ^ ^'" 



trees with secondary crops. ^ °^^^ y"°' /v 



The best way is to plant shorter- ^ ^ ^c' * 



lived fruit trees as fillers, which X.^ ^S v ^ 



must be cut out as soon as they 

 begin to crowd the others. It 

 takes courage to cut out thrifty 

 bearing trees, but it must be 

 done. 



Before the orchard is set, a 

 planting plan should be care- 

 fully made, showing the posi- 

 tion of each tree. There are 

 three main systems of planting : 

 the square (or rectangular), the 

 quincunx, and the hexagonal. 

 An orchard laid out according 

 to the square system would con- 

 sist of a series of squares with 

 a tree at each corner of the 



4> 



Q- 



4 



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F10. 



17. The hexagonal system 



Orchard thinned by cutting alternate rows diago- 

 nally, according to dotted lines 



