190 Growth of the Apple. 
PLANTING AND CARE OF THE APPLE ORCHARD. 
The chapters on propagation, planting, and pruning con- 
tain suggestions to which the reader is referred. Care should 
be taken to obtain trees with clean, healthy roots, not knotted 
and scarred by woolly aphis. 
Distance in Planting—The distance between the trees is of 
the highest importance. All the old apple orchards are over- 
crowded. More recently trees have been set at greater dis- 
tances, and such planting is now generally advised. There is 
some difference of opinion as to proper distance, but certainly 
twenty-live to thirty feet is near enough, and some of the best 
new orchards have been p!anted at forty fect, the ground being 
used for a time with other crops or planted with early bearing 
trees, for which the soil is suited, between them. 
Pruning the Apple—The manner of shaping fruit trees de- 
scribed in the chapter on pruning succeeds admirably with the 
apple. Yearling trees are usually planted, and they are regu-. 
larly pruned until proper form is secured. After coming into 
bearing there must be intelligent pruning according to the 
growth-habit of the variety. Some varieties, like the Yellow 
Bellflower, resent heavy pruning alter coming into bearing, and 
siow growers, like the Ychow Newtown Pippin, do not need it. 
On the other hand varieties, like the Winesap and Smith’s Cider, 
are apt to make long slim branches and bear at the ends. This 
can be corrected by cutting back to secure more short shoots 
which will bear better fruit. The grower must study his vari- 
eties not only with reference to this but in forming the tree, cut- 
ting to an inside bud all varieties which naturally take a hori- 
zontal direction, and cutting to an outside bud varieties which 
have a tendency to send up tall, straight shoots. By thus throw- 
ing the new growth upward in the first case, and outward in the 
second, one can shape each kind to greater symmetry and 
strength for fruit carrying, and bring up all spreading varieties 
to a form which admits near approach of the plow and cultivator. 
This manner of shaping the tree must continue as long as seems 
necessary to secure a tree which will come to bearing age shapely 
and strong, and within reach. 
Bearing trees should not be allowed to carry too many 
branches, and pruning will largely consist of thinning out sur- 
plus shoots and removing interference between branches. It is 
not desirable to shorten-in the apple as is done with the apricot 
and peach. 
In regions of the most intense summer heat, less pruning 
is admissible ‘than in ihe coast and elevated regions. It is nec- 
essary that the foliage be dense to protect the tree and the fruit 
from sunburn. Nor does the tree seem to relish cutting back. 
