SBLKCnON AND PLANTING. 239 



peach — ^the latter come into bearing rapidly, and are gen- 

 erally ready to be removed by the time the apple trees 

 need the whole space. Alternate rows and alternate trees 

 are usually planted with peaches, and the small growing 

 cherries, such as the Early May, often called the Early 

 Richmond, can be planted in the same way. I have seen 

 a still further combination of fruits made by the introduc- 

 tion of the raspberry, or even of the blackberry, the cur- 

 rant, and the gooseberry, in alternate rows, so that, by 

 setting the apple trees at forty feet, with alternating 

 cherry trees, and the cherry rows in the middle space, or 

 twenty feet each way from the apple and cherry rows, 

 and in the intermediate strips of twenty feet the berries, 

 which were also set between the trees, the whole ground 

 was laid ofT in rows of fruit separated by strips of ten 

 feet wide. Nothing is then needed for -the full occupation 

 of the ground, and to yield a return of fruit the next 

 year, but to plant a single row of strawberries in each of 

 these ten feet spaces ; these, if well treated, would make 

 four beds in the spaces between every two of the apple 

 tree rows, or each ten feet, which is nearly half as much 

 as would be planted in the open field ; and these would 

 yield a half crop the next year after planting, and as much 

 the next season, when they should be plowed up to give 

 cultivation to the berry bushes that would then also bear 

 a crop of fruit, and continue to do so until the larger 

 trees needed the ground for their support. The peaches 

 or cherries would commence bearing the third or fourth 

 year, and some of the apples would follow quickly after- 

 ward, yielding partial crops. By such a combination, as 

 has been represented, the land is made to yield a succes- 



