THE GARDEN AND FIELD. 



veniently used over the uneven 

 orchard land 'which is to be plant- 

 ed. The loneer (with reasonable 

 limits) the ^^-ire is made, the less 

 will be the work of setting out the 

 positions of the trees, and the 

 greater the accuracy attainea. The 

 length of wire found most useful 

 in laying out large orchards whose 

 land is fairlv even has been about 

 1 20 yards, but for general piir- 

 poses 80 yards will be foimd sulli- 

 cient. If the land is very uneven 

 the lensrth may with advantage be 

 sfill further reduced, but it should 

 he i'ept as long as possible. 



The details of the planting wire 

 will ■l>e made clear by an examina- 

 tion of Diagram No. 3, which 

 shows a wire graduated for plant- 

 ing the trees with a spacing of 

 24 feet. About two or three teet 

 from the end-ring the first button 



is soldered, then comes a distance 

 of exactly 12 feet (half the dis- 

 tance of the selected width of spac- 

 ing) to the next button, and then 

 regular spaces of 24 feet each, im- 

 til the other end of the wire is 

 approached, when the distance to 

 the last button is 12 feet and a 

 short length to the last end-ring. 



— The use of the Planting Wire, 

 and Method of setting out the Or- 

 chard by means of Base-lines. — 



Instead of pegging out on the 

 ground the position of each tree, 

 it is recommended, that the orchard 

 l>e marked out from end to end 

 with a system of base lines. These 

 should be parallel to each other, 

 and spaced at such a di.stance 

 apart that the two end buttons 

 of the planting wire shall just 

 reach from base-line to base-line 

 when the wire is tightly stretched 

 aicross between them at the angle 

 required bv the system of lay-out 

 adopted. This angle will be one 

 of 60 degrees if the planting is to 

 be in equilateral triangles, and it 

 will be a right-angle if the square 

 system has l>een chosen. In either 

 case the i)lantiug wire and the 

 base-lines will be of eqital value in 

 accurately locating the positions of 

 the trees. Kach button on the 

 planting wire (except the two end 

 buttons, which are kept on the 

 base-lines) will mark the po.sition 

 lor a tree, and if desired a peg 

 mav 1>e driven there, but the au- 

 thor believes that the use of a peg 



to mark the tree's position is both 

 confusing to the men and \er)' 

 wasteful of their time. The much 

 better way is to plant the tree 

 just l>e.side the button of the wire, 

 while the wire is still in position 

 marking its exact place. If a 

 planter once tries this method he 

 will never bother with pegs and 

 planting-l^oards again. There is no 

 difficult V in digging the hole for 

 the tree while the jilanting u^ire is 

 in place ; the button shows the ex- 

 act position even after the soil has 

 been removed in digging the hole, 

 and it also indicates the original 

 le\'el of the ground, so that the 

 man planting will know how deep 

 to set the tree's roots, and be 

 quite sure that when the hole is 

 filled in the young tree will be 

 found to be at the proper level. 



After all the trees along the 

 planting wire have been set, that 



is to say, after a tree is planted 

 just beside each button, then the 

 wire is lifted at each end and 

 then carried up to the next set of 

 marks on the two base-lines, 

 where it is staked down and tight- 

 ly stretched, and another cross 

 row of trees is planted as before. 



— The Base-lines. — 

 The whole accuracy of the work 

 depends on accurate setting out of 

 the base lines. If the orchard were 

 in the form of a long narrow strip 

 of land, say only 100 yards wide, 

 then a base-line should be careful- 

 ly laid down parallel to one of the 

 long fences, and near it, a second 

 ba.se-line parallel to the first is 

 then laid down at the other side 

 of the orchard, and as the plant- 

 ing wire is stretched from each 

 pair of pegs on the two base-lines, 

 the whole orchard will have been 

 covered, and all the planting com- 

 pleted . 



But \isually the orchard is too 

 w'ide to permit of a planting wire 

 of convenient length being .stretch- 

 ed from side to side, and in this 

 case three or more ba.se-lines will 

 be reciuired, and the orchard land 

 will be covered 1)y planting in suc- 

 cessive long block.Si, as wide as the 

 planting wire will span. 



— Setting out the Rase-Iyines. — 



Unless special precautions are 

 taken to T)revent lit, some inac- 

 curacy is likely to be found in mea- 



surement.r taken over tmeven 

 ground. The simplest w^ay for an 

 imtraine<l person to reduce these 

 inaccuracies to within negligible 

 limits is to begin his measure- 

 ments near the centre of his or- 

 chard. The lengths of the mea- 

 sured lines are thus reduced, and 

 the amount of error is also de- 

 creased ; besides this, there is good 

 chance of such errors as may creep 

 in tending to counterbalance each 

 other, and so disappear. 



After ha^■ing decided on the di- 

 rection in wMch his lines of trees 

 shall run, the planter will proceed 

 to set out his base-lines in accord- 

 ance therewith. Presuming that the 

 planting is to be done in equila- 

 teral triangles, the method adopt- 

 ed bv the writer is as follows 

 (.see Diagram No. 4) : — Ivet AB 

 represent the fence of the longest 

 side of the orchard, and let it be 

 understood that the longitudinal 

 lines of trees are to be parallel 

 with this fence, then the planter 

 will stake out a line CDE, which 

 must be quite straight and paral- 

 lel with the fence. It will be used 

 as a base-line, and should be lo- 

 cated at such a distance from the 

 fence that the nearest trees (which 

 will he distant from it 12 feet 

 along the planting wire) shall have 

 the desired amount of clearance. 



A stake should now be set up 

 a'3proximately at the point F, 

 nearly in the centre of the orchard. 

 The transverse base-line DFG will 

 have to be marked out at an angle 

 of 60 degrees with the line CDK, 

 and its approximate direction is 

 best found as follows : — Take a 

 l^iece of binder twine or other cord 

 about so vards long, tie the two 

 ends together, and pass a large 

 wire nail through the knot, so 

 that it shall be firmly fixed ; two 

 other wire nails are then knotted 

 into the twine so that there shall 

 be exacth' the same distance be- 

 tween all three. Now select a 

 point D exactly in the line CDR, 

 and dri\'e one nail there, pull the 

 cord t\"^ht between that nail and 

 the next to it. and drive it in ex- 

 actly on the line ; now take the 

 third nail and, pulling the cord 

 tiii^ht between it and each of its 

 two mates, mark the exact spot. 

 This should give an equilateral tri- 

 angle and mark the proper direc- 

 tion for the transverse ba.sie-line 

 lYFC. But it is probable that two 

 or three trials will be reqxiired be- 

 fore the line is found to pass with- 

 in, say, a few yards of F; when it 

 does so, the point D can be finally 

 fixed, although F is still to be de- 

 finitely located. The exact posi- 

 tion of F is found by stretching 

 the planting wire from D in the 



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