AN ENGLISH FEUIT-FAEM IN THE MAKING. 



493 



ing the fruit-farm ! The failure to plant sound, healthy, true to name 

 stock may mean the failure of the entire enterprise; it will certainly 

 mean a very serious set-back to it. Nursery stock should only be 

 bought from those who have made a reputation as reliable nurserymen, 

 and have therefore a reputation to lose. 



When to Plant. — Autumn is the planting season, and the aim of 

 the planter should be to get all his planting for the season done by 

 Christmas time at latest. That may not be possible; time, perhaps, 

 has been too short to get the land thoroughly prepared by the autumn. 

 Then the planting should be deferred until the early spring, the trees 

 and bushes meanwhile remaining snugly heeled-in in trenches made in 

 sheltered positions. To plant in the depth of ordinary winters is to 

 take considerable risks ; roots exposed to cold air or plastered into their 

 permanent positions in cold, wet soil have a poor chance of retaining or 

 regaining vitality. 



How to Vlant. — The laying-out of plantations calls for plenty of 

 forethought ; the welTare of the plants, as well as facility and economy 

 in working the farm, depend upon sound planning in this connexion. 



It has to be decided which particular area is to be devoted to each 

 particular kind of fruit, and the position allotted to each in which it 

 has the best chance of doing well; the special demands as to soil and 

 exposure of the various kinds being met in so far as the differences in 

 soil and position over the entire site will allow. It may easily happen, 

 for example, on a farm of no very wide acreage, that the land planted 

 in apples would have better suited the currants, or both plums and 

 raspberries would have given better results had the one occupied the 

 site of the other. There is plenty of scope for thoughtful arrangement 

 'in laying out a fruit-farm. If wind-breaks must be planted, it is all- 

 important that they be grown where they will serve their purpose to 

 perfection, and, whenever practicable, the land devoted to them should 

 at the same time be utilized as roadways, paths, and headlands. It 

 has been said that fruit-farming is to be conducted upon broad principles 

 and with strict consideration to economy. This implies expedition in 

 cultural processes, coupled with the maximum efficiency at the 

 minimum of cost. Hand-labour is costly and necessarily slow; on the 

 fruit-farm it must be eliminated and horse-power substituted whenever 

 and wherever possible. The plough must supplant the spade, and — 

 except in the immediate vicinity of the plants — the hand-hoe must give 

 way to the horse-hoe, or cultivator. 



When these horse-drawn implements are worked by skilled and 

 trustworthy workmen the result is not merely cheaper and infinitely 

 more quickly achieved, but it is actually better in effect than the 

 output of hand-labour usually procurable. In laying out the fruit- 

 farm the plan of plantation must allow for horse-cultivation, and the 

 rows of plants and plants in the rows be spaced accordingly, with 

 ample headlands for the manoeuvring of ploughs and scarifiers sur- 

 rounding each plantation. There is no extravagance in this. Apparent 

 waste of ground is repaid not merely in the economizing of labour. 



