498 
April 15, 
THE RURAI> NEW-YORKER 
Hope Farm Notes 
PLANTING TREES AT HOPE FARM. 
I am like the bad penny that always re¬ 
turns. But this time I am going to bother 
yon for my neighbors as well as myself. 
There are several who are going to start 
orchards, and they join me in asking -you 
to give your method of growing your young 
orchards, from setting the trees until now. 
Some of them never set out a tree. They 
want to know how deep and wide a hole ? 
How to cut back roots and tops? Kind of 
fertilizer? IIow to prune the second year? 
They would like it in The It. N.-Y. if you 
have space, so that all can read it, and if 
you have any pictures of the trees after 
planting and later, showing their growth, it 
would give them an idea of how the trees 
should look. F. p. b. 
Massachusetts. 
I fear that our experience and practice 
will hardly be regarded as “expert"’ advice— 
however, this is about the way we try to 
operate. Our orchards are mostly on a 
steep hillside. The soil is inclined to be 
stiff and hard, and is very stony in parts. 
Our object was to establish a good com¬ 
mercial orchard with small capital and little 
cost of labor. 
We buy good-sized year-old trees. The 
height of the tree does not matter as much 
as the size of the stem, as we cut most of 
the top away. I like a yearling cut back 
to a whip, because we can control and shape 
the head as it grows and get it down close 
to the ground. Some people argue for older 
trees—two or three years old. With such 
trees the head or crotch has already been 
formed, and in the majority of cases it is 
not the head you want. With these older 
trees you do not want to cut them off be¬ 
low the crotch. There are some cases 
where a very low head is not desirable, as, 
for instance, where you want to grow crops 
under the trees while they are coming into 
fruit. I have a few acres where this is de¬ 
sirable, and in such cases we head the trees 
high. In our hillside orchards we try to 
get the trees down low. 
As soon as the trees come from the nur¬ 
sery we get them out of the boxes and ly?el 
the' roots in. This is done by plowing tur- 
rows or digging ditches so that the roots 
will go into them. The bundles of trees 
are set in these furrows in a slanting posi¬ 
tion and earth thrown over the roots and 
stamped down hard. Take a microscope 
and look the trees over for scale, hunting 
for little grey patches near where the twigs 
start out, with little purple spots. If you 
find any dip or spray the trees before you 
plant them, using soluble oil or lime-sul¬ 
phur for the purpose. Where there are but 
few trees this can be done by wiping the 
trees in a cloth wet in one of these liquids. 
We stake off the field where the trees are 
to go, using a line and stick. Our apple 
trees are planted 32 feet each way and the 
peach 16 or 18 feet. Up to this year we 
have not used “fillers"’ except in one case 
where we planted peach trees between the 
apples. We do not like the plan and shall 
not do it again. This year we are planting 
Wealthy and McIntosh apples as fillers. In 
one field we shall plant the trees 20 feet 
each way, planning to cut out the alternate 
rows when the trees get too large and the 
a’ternate trees in the other rows later on. 
When the stakes are set and the trees have 
come we begin digging holes. We like to 
put the tree into fresh dug soil. A short- 
handled spade is used, and with practice 
about five licks with it will finish the hole. 
We drive it down to the full length with 
the foot and throw out all the spade will 
hold. Then step to the opposite side and 
repeat. Then on the other two sides with 
one scrape to clean out the bottom. As a 
result we have a hole about 18 inches across 
and a little deeper than the spade. 
We have experimented with all sorts of 
holes for planting trees. One year we 
planted peach trees in crowbar holes. 
These holes were simply punched in the soil 
with an ordinary iron bar. All the side 
roots were cut off and the top cut back to 
15 inches. These little sticks were put into 
the crowbar holes and the soil pounded 
hard around them. Most of them lived and 
did well, making a peculiar root system 
with long and deep tap roots. The great 
trouble was that without side roots to 
brace and bind them in the soil these trees 
were in danger of being lifted out by the 
frost, or whirling around with the wind. 
We have used post auger holes and most 
other sizes up to that of a barrel, and con¬ 
clude that the size described above is best 
for yearling trees. 
While one man is digging the holes an¬ 
other follows to plant. We take only a 
few bundles at a time, and keep the roots 
covered with wet straw or sacking. With a 
heavy sharp knife—a single slice if possible 
—the top of the trees is cut off so as to 
leave a little over two feet above ground. 
This length will vary with the size and 
«hape of the tree. We prefer a clean cut 
below the crotch if the little tree has 
formed any, so as to leave a straight, sin¬ 
gle stem. In case a crotch has been 
formed low down with three or more 
branches, we let it go by cutting far enough 
above it to leave one or two good outside 
buds on each limb. Of course no one would 
think of leaving inside buds here to grow 
into the center of the tree. Good judgment 
is required in doing this pruning. It is the 
job for the boss, for it may determine the 
shape of his future trees. He should study 
a well-shaped tree before he begins and 
have it in mind as he cuts, trying to imag¬ 
ine what the limbs or buds will look like 
when they grow. Having cut the top, turn 
the little tree up and examine the roots. 
Look first for crown-gall or little warts or 
bunches on the roots or close to the base 
of the tree. If vou find any do not plant 
that tree; it will not amount to anything 
Tut such a tree at one side and at once 
notify the nurseryman, telling him how 
many you found. If the tree and roots are 
clean take your sharp knife and cut on the 
under side of the roots so as to leave about 
five to six inches of the larger roots. Do 
not cut them sharp off, but with a long 
cut, so that when the tree is put into the 
ground this cut surface will rest on the 
bottom of the hole. Cut out all small roots. 
Thus cut your tree will show a root spread 
of a foot or a little more, and is ready to 
plant. You have not asked for any argu¬ 
ment to show that this is the best way. 
Experience has convinced us that these 
short-rooted trees planted in comparatively 
small holes make a better root system and are 
more permanent than where the roots are 
left on and large holes are dug. 
With the tree pruned in this way we 
put it down in the center of the hole and 
sight both ways so as to have it exactly ih 
line. Some planters use a board with a 
notch cut in it, placed over the hole, to keep 
the tree in line. It does not make great 
difference, if the roots are crowded or 
jammed together at the bottom of the hole. 
Experiments in England seem to have dem¬ 
onstrated that. I think this theory o? try¬ 
ing to straighten out the roots until they 
lie like electric wires is pretty much lost 
labor. The most important thing is to have 
the soil packed and jammed hard around 
the roots. Unless this is done air will work 
in and the roots may dry out or refuse to 
callus over. We throw top soil around the 
roots in the hole and stamp down. Then 
bits of sod, if any were dug up, all packed 
hard. Then the remaining soil until the 
hole is filled, with a little mound around 
the base of the tree. I would stamp with a 
heavy heel around the tree five or six times 
while the hole is being filled, for the most 
necessary thing of all is to have that soil 
packed hard. Some growers do this by 
pouring a bucket or so of water into the 
hole as the dirt is thrown in. We do not 
have a water supply near our orchard and 
the packing does the work. Thus, when our 
trees arc planted they stand about one 
inch deeper in the ground than they did in 
the nursery, the soil packed hard around 
them and a little mound around the base. 
Our first apple orchard was planted on a 
high hill to the west of the farm. I well 
remember looking up there from the valley 
as the sun went down and seeing merely a 
group of little stakes outlined against the 
sky. It hardly seemed possible that this 
could be the starting.of an orchard, yet now 
the trees stand broad and high like a young 
forest covering the hill. 
What about fertilizing and care? It will 
depend on what you intend to d» with the 
land. Many farmers feel that they cannot 
afford to let the land lie idle while the 
trees are growing, so they grow crops be¬ 
tween the trees— the cultivation and fer¬ 
tilizing of these crops caring for all. You 
will see on page 260 how John Q. Wells did 
this by growing beans between the trees, 
plowing first in one direction and then in 
the other. This simple plan has produced a 
good orchard. We have followed several 
plans. In one case the ground has been left 
in sod—the grass cut and most of it piled 
around the trees. On another part of the 
hill strips five or six feet wide have been 
plowed on each side of the tree rows and 
kept cultivated, while the middles were left 
in grass or rye. In other cases all the land 
was plowed and cultivated in corn. I will 
try to describe these various plans next 
week. You now know how we plant a tree. 
Do not under any circumstances put manure 
in the hole when you plant. One year I 
“took advice” and dug holes in the Fall and 
filled them with manure. In the Spring we 
pulled out the manure and planted. It was 
a fine theory, but it killed most of the trees. 
Keep manure or concentrated fertilizer out 
of the holes. A handful of bone meal and 
wood ashes would do no particular harm, but 
I would much prefer to plant the trees as 
described above and use no fertilizer with 
it. Let it make its own start. The place 
for fertilizer or manure for the little tree is 
around it—the fertilizer worked lightly into 
the soil or the manure left on top as a 
mulch. Do not pile manure close around 
the trunk of the tree, but always a few 
inches away, and use all the straw, trash, 
anything that will rot. for this purpose. It 
will keep the soil moist and cool and help 
the tree. Now, with our tree planted, we 
will trv to tell how we care for it. 
H. w. c. 
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The above illustration shows 
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Bangor, Me., which was roofed 
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The owner’s opinion of it is ex¬ 
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Yours very truly, 
(Signed) S. P. STRICKLAND.” 
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