10 DEPARTMENT CIRCULAR 58, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE. 
the trees 4 or 6 feet apart in the row. The three rows on the west 
are planted to the hardiest native fruits, and one such row runs 
across both the north and the south ends of the patch. The trees 
are cut back somewhat at planting time, to induce bushiness. There 
is to be no further pruning except a certain amount of summer 
pinching, to induce bushiness and fruit spurs. 
wakes 
Such a system will develop low, bushy, dense, dwarfish, and com- — 
pact trees, and the rows will soon have somewhat the appearance of 
a hedge. Plum trees growing under this system are shown in figure 7. 
The first few years, while the plants are too small and open to hold 
the snow, either corn, 
oats, or some other 
snow-holding crop is 
grown between the 
rows, but this is not 
sown until midsum- 
mer, 
It is also likely 
that the bush and cane 
fruits can be grown 
between the tree rows 
the first six or eight 
years, but such small 
fruits should be 
spaced 8 feet in the 
rows and kept in hills. 
The advantages of 
this system of plant- 
ing and culture in- 
clude mutual protec- 
Fic. 5.—Under the usual system of orchard planting, as . np et 
shown here, the trees furnish no protection to each tion against cold, 
other, and the high-headed trees furnish no protection to wind, sun scald, eVap- 
ee oration, hail, hot soil, 
and rabbits. It is also conducive to the catching and holding 
of snow. The low hedgelike form of growth should facilitate such 
operations as spraying, cultivation, summer pinching, and harvesting. 
The second system which is being tested can be referred to as the 
“ sroup-orchard method.” In this system bushy or low-headed trees 
are planted in groups of four or six trees each, spaced 2 feet apart 
within the group and the groups spaced 12 by 16 feet for plums and 
16 by 25 feet or less for apples and crabs. The trees are to be kept 
low and bushy by summer pinching for the first two or three years. A 
snow catch crop is to be planted between the rows the first few years. _ 
Each group is to be treated as a unit, like a single tree in the ordinary 
