January, 1916 
41 
preparing this land follows: 
Removing stones not charged to 
road account. $31.00 
Cutting and clearing brush and old 
trees . 170.99 
Dynamite used in blowing out roots 8.25 
Plowing (side hill plow followed by 
subsoil plow) . 241.80 
Harrowing .. 26.00 
Total .$478.04 
On this land we planted 2,550 trees, 
which made the land for each tree cost 
almost 19 cents. 
The last 20 acres to be made ready was 
land without much rubbish to remove. The 
ground had been plowed some years before 
and left in pasture. It cost as follows: 
Clearing away trash. $17.50 
Plowing, followed by subsoil plow. . 190.40 
Harrowing .. 25.00 
As old, neglected trees are a 
menace to the young orchard, 
the brush from the older trees 
was burned at once 
The pi ace for the 
pond was plowed 
and the soil 
carted away. This 
is the first team 
on the work 
markers. Blue prints of 
various plans for tree 
planting had been sub¬ 
mitted by the tree grow¬ 
ers. The square plan 
was used for the small 
orchards. This used 25 
permanent trees and 96 
fillers to an acre. The 
two large orchards were 
planted by the hexag¬ 
onal plan that uses 30 
permanent trees and 90 
fillers to the acre. This 
latter plan was used for 
the large orchards be¬ 
cause, as they lay on a 
hillside, it seemed to give 
better opportunity to 
cultivate around the hill 
between the rows of 
trees, thus making easier 
work for the teams. In 
each case the permanent 
trees were set 40 feet 
apart, bringing the fill¬ 
ers 20 feet from each other and from the 
permanent trees. 
Great care was taken to plant the trees 
in straight rows. Nothing looks more un¬ 
cared for than uneven rows of trees. As 
the trees get of some size this is even more 
apparent. 
We had no square fields where the first 
row of trees could be set parallel to a 
fence, so an arbitrary line was drawn fif¬ 
teen feet from the narrowest border of the 
fields. On this was set the first row of 
stakes, and other stakes were carried across 
the field from that. Where the land was 
fairly level, a pole 20 feet long made the 
distance from tree to tree accurately, but 
where the trees were to be set on a side hill 
this plan was not practical. The need 
brought the idea for a tool which the men 
called a “leveler.” It consists of a stand¬ 
ard on which a sliding section 20 feet long 
is mounted in such a. manner that it can be 
(Continued on page 58) 
$232.90 
Here we planted 2,500 trees, which made 
the land per tree cost 9 cents. 
From these figures we drew the follow¬ 
ing conclusions: 
From a commercial 
standpoint never plant ap¬ 
ple trees on land that has 
to be drained by tiles; 
plenty of land can be had 
which will drain itself. 
Land that does not 
have to be cleared first 
should cost from 9 to 12 
cents a foot to make 
ready for planting, but, 
because of the clearing, 
the best land we had cost 
us nearly 19 cents, and we 
considered it a good in¬ 
vestment. 
Staking Trees 
After the ground was 
prepared the staking out 
of the trees followed. We 
used round sticks four 
feet high for these place 
We decided to experiment with potatoes before trying out the other available vegetables— 
cabbages, peas and beans. Compare this with the plowing picture opposite, and you see 
the third orchard set out with potato intercrops and good clear cultivation about the trees 
