THE ORCHAED. 



167 



mainly with, the plough, and occasionally cropped, stand- 

 ard trees, with stems four or five feet in height, will be 

 the most eligible, and ought to be at time of planting 

 three or four years old from the bud or graft, well grown, 

 with stout, straight, well proportioned trunks. Low, stout 

 trees are always preferable to tall, slender ones. Inexpe- 

 rienced planters are generally more particular about the 

 height than the diameter of the trunk, but it should be 

 just the other way. If trees are stout, and have good roots, 

 a foot in height is comparatively unimportant, unless to 

 one who wishes to turn cattle into his orchard and have 

 the heads of his trees at once out of their way. Few peo- 

 ple, however, follow such a practice. In very elevated 

 and exposed situations low trees are to be preferred, as the 

 wind does not strike them with such force as it does the 

 tall ones. 



Yth. Arrangement of the Trees. — ^The distance between 

 the trees in an apple orchard should be thirty feet from 

 tree to tree in all directions. In a very strong and deep 

 soil, where the trees attain the largest size, forty feet is 

 not too much, especially after the first fifteen or twenty 

 years. There is a great difierence between the size that 

 difierent varieties attain, and in their habits of growth. 

 One will attain nearly double the size of another within 

 ten years. Some are erect in their habits (as fig. 3) ; oth- 

 ers spreading (as fig. 5) ; and it will add greatly to the 

 symmetry of the plantation, if the trees of the same size 

 and habit of growth be planted together. Varieties that 

 ripen about the same time should also be planted together, 

 as the maturity can be more easily watched and the fruit 

 gathered with much less inconvenience. The largest 

 fruits being most liable to be blown ofi!, should be placed 

 in the least exposed quarter. 



The ordinary arrangement of orchard trees, is the 

 square or regular form, in rows the same distance apart, 



