12 SUCCESSFUL FRUIT CULTURE 



may be sown in September, to be turned under in June, 

 and followed by the soy beans and then by peas and 

 barley. 



Should the land be very much exhausted, a light 

 dressing of fertilizer may be necessary with the first 

 crop. With land that cannot be fitted by plowing, it 

 can only be properly fitted by digging large holes in 

 which to plant the trees ; the larger the space worked the 

 better the trees will grow. 



DISTANCE rOR PLANTING 



Trees that grow only to medium size, like the 

 Fameuse, Ben Davis, Wealthy, Sutton and others, on 

 poor soil, may be planted as near as 35x35 or 30x30 

 feet, but trees of a larger growth, like the Baldwin, 

 Gravenstein, King, etc., and on strong soil, should bo 

 planted not less than 40x40 feet. Double thick plant- 

 ing is largely practiced, i. e., 13 1-3x13 1-3, 15x15 and 

 30x30 feet, and this method has many advantages. In 

 the first place, the cost of trees is a very small item in the 

 expense of planting an orchard, while the crop produced 

 from the trees, up to the twelfth year, when they begin 

 to touch branches, will often be a large item in paying 

 the expense of the whole. The great danger in this 

 method lies in the reluctance with which the temporary 

 trees will be removed when they begin to encroach 

 upon the permanent ones. The varieties used between 

 the permanent trees, called fillers, are often early 

 maturing, that do not grow to a large size, such as the 

 Wealthy, Ben Davis, Hubbardston, etc. By heading 

 hack the fillers as they encroach upon the permanent 

 trees, they may be kept in condition for bearing fruit 

 for twenty years or more. But this work rnvst be begun 

 as soon as the branches begin to touch or all will be 

 permanently injured. Figure 3 shows the result of 

 close planting where the fillers have not been removed. 



