Vol. LXIV. No. 2886 
NEW YORK, MAY 20, 1905 
WEEKLY, $1.00 PER YEAR 
CLOSE PLANTING OF AN ORCHARD. 
The Authorities Oppose It. 
On page 354 attention was called to a plan for an orchard 
in New England. Apple trees were to he planted 33 feet 
apart for permanent places, with other apples as fillers 24 
feet and peach It!>4 feet from the apples. We called for 
criticisms of the plan. Mere are some of them : 
Mr. Van Deman Opposes the Plan. 
On page 354 some one describes a plan for setting 
an orchard in Connecticut, and criticisms of it are 
asked for. The general principle of the plan is what 
I should recommend to anyone, if 1 was 
asked advice on the subject, but I have two 
very serious objections to the details as he 
states them. As I was the originator of the 
plan of interplanting varieties of the apple, 
some for permanent trees and others of early 
bearing kinds for cutting out when their 
room would be needed, I take deep interest 
in this matter. I think the apple orchard I 
planted in the Spring of 1S72 on my farm 
in Kansas was the first one set after this 
plan. It was certainly the first one I know of. 
My first objection to the plan of our New 
England friend is, that he is trying to get 
too many trees on the ground. The perma¬ 
nent apple trees should be not less than 40 
feet apart and 50 would be better. They will, 
when fully grown, need all this space to give 
them plenty of sunlight for the full devel¬ 
opment of their foliage and fruit, and the 
roots will make good use of the ground 
space. In the same issue of The R. N.-Y. 
is a statement by an experienced orchardist 
in New York, which proves that at “20 years 
from setting” the branches began to meet on 
trees “set 30 x 32 feet.” Imagine the Con¬ 
necticut orchard 20 years hence, with its 
permanent trees 33 feet apart. He will have 
another problem that he was not expecting 
to have to solve. If he should plant his 
apple trees 20 feet apart each way, which 
would give him 108 trees per acre, there would 
be enough on the ground to satisfy any rea¬ 
sonable apple orchardist, and at 25 feet apart, 
making 69 per acre, there would be what I 
think enough for a region where apple trees 
grow to large size. In the Prairie and 
Pacific States 20 feet is about right, including 
the fillers, provided the latter are promptly 
cut out. 
But our friend in Connecticut has the pur¬ 
pose of still further overtaxing the soil and 
air of his proposed orchard, by adding as 
many more peach trees as he is to have of 
apple trees. Herein lies my second objection. 
I have plenty of experience in growing peach 
trees among apple trees, and will never do it 
again. I know that this plan of interplant¬ 
ing the apple and peach has some advocates, 
and I do not deny that they may sometimes 
come out well with it, but I have the first 
apple orchard to see, in which peach trees 
\£ere grown, that was not the worse for it. The peach 
trees are a positive nuisance to the apple trees. They 
overgrow and rob them to some extent in all cases, I 
claim, and often very seriously. And it is so abso¬ 
lutely needless to interplant them. Let the apple trees 
grow by themselves and the peach trees likewise. The 
tillage and spraying that one needs may not suit the 
other, and rarely does. It is about right to plant 160 
peach trees on an acre of land, but that many apple 
trees is far too many in any of the eastern States. The 
trees may suffer permanently from the close planting, 
and future loss result. h. e. van deman. 
Would Not Pay in Delaware. 
I have had some little experience, and in this section 
l would never advise it. I would always plant each 
fruit by itself. There are many objections to it and 
but few reasons for it. In fact, I can see no reason for 
it unless where a person has only a limited area to 
plant. Nearly every kind of fruit grows differently, and 
most all require different methods of cultivation and 
fertilizing. Most important of all, in these days of 
spraying, mixtures used for one thifig may injure an¬ 
other, and if they did not there are times when one 
fruit should be sprayed when it would be impossible to 
SECTION OF FALL BEAUTY APPLE. Fig. 166. 
spray another, a very important matter to consider. 
1 low many men, no matter how good their intentions, 
have the nerve to cut out the fillers when it should be 
done? These are often allowed to remain to the detri¬ 
ment of other trees. Apple trees must certainly be 
sprayed with Bordeaux Mixture several times during 
the season, and ive all know the peach will not stand 
this after the leaves begin to come out. He would 
have to injure the peach if he sprayed, for no matter 
how careful some material would get on to the tree. 
In the early part of the life of an orchard the peach 
trees would grow much faster than the apple, and of 
course hold them back to some extent. I know some¬ 
times mixed orchards are successful, but for my own 
I want each thing by itself to be cultivated, manured 
and handled as best suited to its own individual needs. 
I have pear trees among apple that have never been a 
success, apples among plums and Kieffer pears that 
have never paid. chas. wright. 
Delaware. 
Keep Apple Trees Apart. 
I was quite interested in “Quality^” plan for an or- 
cha’-J, perhaps on account of the fact that we have just 
finished setting 450 trees, including pears and 
apples. Now, the plan looks like a good one, 
and it is to be presumed that the correspond¬ 
ent does not feel like making any material 
changes, as humanity is prone to seek advice, 
but reluctant to act upon it. However, 1 
would say do not set long-lived apple trees 
less than 40 feet apart. Draw your tape 
under the spreading branches of a matured 
Greening, Baldwin or Spy tree that has not 
been crowded for standing room, and you 
will be surprised to find a distance of from 
40 to 45 feet. Now, why not give the trees 
a little more room? Think of the poor 
fellow who, rides in the tower at spraying 
time, dodging no'w and then the swish of 
slimy limbs, which overlap and intermingle, 
scratch your hands and make them tingle; 
wish that “dad” was up here now; guess he’d 
see how close, I vow; to say nothing of 
hanging to the tower for dear life and 
trusting that the tower will hang to the 
wagon. 
Again, consider a good circulation of air 
and abundance of sunlight in an orchard, 
which gives fairness and color to the fruit. 
To lay out the ground for trees we found 
it convenient to have a light strip of lumber, 
such as a number of lath nailed together, which 
when complete was 40 feet in length, or the 
distance between the apple trees. This was 
used as a measure in setting the stakes. 
When the trees are to be planted in plowed 
ground the stakes may be seen for a long 
distance, if recently split from any light 
wood; but if laying out a stubble field 
there is considerable difficulty in seeing the 
stakes, unless covered with something 
black. Set a stake at the opposite side of 
the field from the one you “squint” from. 
Then as two men walk down the row with 
the long measure described above, insist 
that they place the stakes in a vertical or 
upright position. After getting your rows, 
say lengthwise, have a man go through the 
other way to correct what errors may have 
occurred. 
In planting take a light strip, one by three 
or four inches and six or eight feet in 
length; bore three one-inch holes, one at 
either end, and one in the center, which is 
to be sawed out from one side, forming a 
guide with holes at either end and a notch in center, 
which is to be placed on the ground in such a manner 
that the stakes will enter the notch in the center. Then 
through the end - holes peg to the ground with pegs which 
about fit the holes. Now slip guide off on? peg and 
swing out of way while hole is to be dug. Replace 
guide and insert tree in hole, allowing it to enter notch 
and keep in place until hole is filled. Two of these 
guides may be made in one operation by placing one 
strip above another, and in much less time than it 
takes to describe them. In this way the guides will 
be interchangeable, which is also of importance. 
