February, 1916 
41 
that they are allowed to remain standing 
after the permanent trees have begun to 
bear, this fact will make harvesting easier, 
as picking their fruit will succeed that work 
on the Spys and Baldwins. 
Setting the Trees 
In the first orchard we planted dynamite 
was tried. This was the one where a heavy 
clay subsoil underlies the loam to a depth 
of 6 ' or 7'. Here the dynamite was a com¬ 
plete failure, both for draining the land 
and setting the trees. A water pocket was 
the result of every shot, and the pick and 
shovel method had to be adopted. 
For digging holes and planting the men 
were divided into gangs of four. Two went 
ahead digging holes, two followed planting 
trees. It takes two men to plant a tree well. 
One holds the tree in position and arranges 
the roots, the other fills in the earth and 
packs it. By this method it cost $63.40 to 
stake out and plant 429 trees, or almost 
15 cents a hole. 
The next orchard we planted numbered 
197 trees. It was situated on a side hill. 
Here shale rock and streaks of sand formed 
the subsoil, under shallow loam. It was 
almost impossible to dig the holes deep 
enough with pick and shovel for the best 
development of the roots of the young 
trees. Dynamite work here was a complete 
success. Clay was almost absent from the 
subsoil, so there were no water pockets 
formed. In many cases the shale rock had 
to be drilled to a depth of 18" to admit the 
charge of dynamite. The explosion pulver¬ 
ized the shale so it made good root con¬ 
ditions and planting was easy. Forty per 
cent dynamite was used, for which 18 cents 
a pound was paid. The expense of the op¬ 
eration follows: 
Dynamite, fuse and caps. $24.63 
Labor, staking and setting trees. ... 41.58 
$66.21 
This made the expense of setting 197 
trees a little more than 33 cents a tree. Time 
was lost in trying to make the rows on the 
hillside straight where it was difficult to 
measure accurately. This experience led 
to the building of the leveler already men¬ 
tioned. 
The third orchard, twenty acres, was the 
best soil, consisting of rich loam 3 ' deep 
underlaid by shale, sand, and streaks of 
soft clay. The clay was not 
compact enough to form 
pockets when dynamite was 
used, so, as the season was 
late and men scarce, dyna¬ 
mite was used all over the 
orchard. Here 2,550 trees 
were set. The gangs also 
consisted of four men. Two 
used the explosives and 
cleared the hole out, two 
followed setting the trees. 
As we really wanted to 
get the best method of using 
dynamite, and the under¬ 
taking was large enough to 
arouse local interest in our 
methods, a demonstrator 
was sent from the dynamite 
plant with tools and vari¬ 
ous kinds of dynamite 
suited to different condi¬ 
tions. This demonstration 
cost us only the material 
used, and the time given by 
The fall planted tree needs a protector 
to keep mice and rabbits from gnawing 
the bark 
our own workmen ■— amounting to about 
$3.00—and in the light of subsequent re¬ 
sults was well worth while. 
The demonstrator agreed with our ex¬ 
perience, saying that “dynamite is worse 
than useless in heavy clay sub-soils, or 
where any ground is water-soaked, for then 
it forms hard cakes of the earth.” He 
went over the fields with our men, showing 
them where to use forty per cent dynamite 
and where a lighter charge of twenty per 
cent would be better. The object is to make 
a slow explosion which will pulverize the 
subsoil and dig the hole, but leave the 
earth loose in the hole ready to shovel out. 
An explosion large enough to remove the 
earth from the hole wastes the soil, and 
makes work hunting for earth to fill in 
about the trees. In rocky conditions, such 
as our first hillside planting, he used forty 
per cent dynamite; in ordinary loam with 
loose shale or light subsoil, he used twenty 
per cent dynamite. The cost of setting 
out these 2,550 trees was as follows: 
Staking 2,550 trees (there were so 
many that the operation is listed 
separately) . $55.95 
Labor for setting trees. 194.99 
200 lbs. dynamite 20% ($13.85 per 
C.) ... 27.70 
200 lbs. dynamite 40% ($15.00 per 
C.) . 30.00 
2,700 caps. 27.00 
4,800' of fuse. 28.80 
$364.44 
Staking the trees therefore cost a little 
better than 2 cents a tree, and planting cost 
something more than 12 cents, or the com¬ 
plete cost per tree better than 14 cents. 
In setting the fourth orchard we had the 
same soil conditions that were found in the 
third orchard. The loam was loose and 
rich. There were no very steep hillsides 
in this twenty acres; the slopes being more 
gentle reduced the cost of staking. We had 
plenty of men to do the planting, so we dug 
all the holes by hand. The third orchard had 
been set in the fall, but this fourth orchard 
setting came after the early spring rains 
when the ground was water-soaked. Often 
when the soil would dig well by hand it 
would have caked had dynamite been used. 
The cost of this planting was as follows: 
Staking 2,550 trees. $33.10 
Digging holes and setting trees. . . . 180.00 
$213.10 
This made the cost of staking 1/ cents 
per tree, and the cost of planting 10 cents 
per tree, or a total cost of llj /3 cents per 
tree. 
Summing up our experience, the first 
trees planted were set with pick and shovel 
at a cost of 15 cents a tree. The second 
orchard was set in rocky ground with dyna¬ 
mite at a cost of 33 cents a tree. The third 
orchard was set with dynamite on good 
ground at a cost of more than 14 cents a 
hole. The fourth orchard was set with pick 
and shovel at a cost of 11 j/j cents a tree. 
This seemed to show that, under equally 
good conditions the cost of setting a tree 
with dynamite, or without, did not vary 
more than a penny or so. The relative value 
of the two methods depends upon local con¬ 
ditions, which change with every tree that 
is set, and here, as everywhere else, a man 
must use his own good sense. 
Treatment of Young 
Trees 
People are usually vio¬ 
lently prejudiced for, or 
against, fall planting. In 
our vicinity no one sets 
trees in the fall, but it hap¬ 
pened that our first orchard 
land was ready to plant at 
that season, so we set about 
it. The season was wet 
and warm, a late growing 
time, so planting did not 
begin until the 23rd of Oc¬ 
tober. As there were only 
429 trees to set, the work 
was easily done in five 
days. The third orchard 
was also set in the fall. 
Here we had 2,550 trees to 
plant. They reached us the 
last week in October and 
(Continued on page 62) 
The large areas to be covered called for a horse-drawn planter to set 
out the potato fields properly 
