YOUR OWN ORCHARD 
Sufficient Fruit for Home Consumption Can Be Grown on the Smallest Lot—Plan the Orchard Now 
to Plant Next Month — Directions for Planting, Pruning and Spraying 
F. F. ROCKWELL 
If you can spare one-tenth of an acre (60' x 75') 
orchard, here are the facts in a nutshell 
There seems to be a mis¬ 
apprehension to the effect 
that you cannot have fruit 
without an orchard, and you 
cannot have an orchard 
without a great deal of 
ground; and that, therefore, 
the pleasures and rewards of 
fruit growing are not for the 
suburban place, but are re¬ 
stricted to the small farm. 
As a matter of fact, enough 
apples, pears, peaches, plums 
and cherries can be grown to supply the average familv with 
these \ arious fruits during their respective seasons on a very 
few trees. A normal yield will give the following amount 
of fruits per tree: Apples, 2-10 bu.; dwarf apples, \y~2 bu.; 
peaches, y 2 - 5; pears, 1-5; plums, y 2 - 2; cherries, y 2 -2 bu. The 
yields for the first few years after they begin bearing will 
be nearer the lower figures. 
Fruit for preserving and apples for winter can usually be 
bought at a reasonable price by taking advantage of a full 
market, but the table supply should be had from one’s own 
trees. With fruit, even more than with vegetables, high table 
quality and good shipping quality are seldom found in the same 
variety; and the grower must give the shipping quality first 
consideiaton. Secondly, because your home-grown fruit can 
ripen on the tree, and as its peculiar flavor and aroma is devel¬ 
oped after it is full grown, during the last few days when it is 
getting ready to come off at a touch, you cannot expect to find 
the same quality in fruit picked half green so that it will 
“stand up” in shipping and in sale. Moreover, unless you buy 
fruit that has been individually wrapped and handled, you 
cannot get it free from bruises and bad spots. 
Plan Now to Plant Later 
It may seem out of place at first sight to talk about juicy 
peaches and sugary plums in December; but if you want these 
and the other things mentioned during the coming season, now 
is the time to decide where and what you may want to plant 
in the way of new trees and to 
take care of those you already 
have. 
In the northern states, spring is 
usually the best time for planting 
fruit trees provided they are 
planted early enough. The only 
possible way of planting them at 
the very first possible opportunity 
is to prepare places for them now 
before the ground freezes hard. 
This combines the advantages of 
both fall and spring planting, as 
you save the time which usually 
can ill be spared—and generally 
is not spared from the rush sea¬ 
son of early spring; and gives 
the winter’s action on soil and 
fertilizers which gets them into 
a condition that assures rapid 
growth. 
Do not, however, make the mis¬ 
take, as many amateurs do, of 
thinking that you can put any tree 
anywhere, give it any kind of at¬ 
tention — and get good fruit. All 
of the things I have mentioned can 
be successfully grown in the 
northern states, provided suitable 
varieties are selected. If you ex¬ 
pect to grow fruit, you may as well 
realize at the outset that you have 
1 
Variety. 
Allow 
Diameter. 
Expect 
Good Fruit. 
Normal Yield i 
Per Tree. | 
i 
8 dwarf pears. 
10'-12' 
2-3 years. 
1-5 bushels. 1 
E 
3 peaches 
10'-15' 
3-5 “ 
54-5 “ I 
1 
3 pears. 
20' 
3-5 “ 
1-5 “ i 
1 
2 cherries 
15'-25' 
3-4 “ 
54-2 “ I 
1 
3 plums. 
8'-10' 
3-5 “ 
5fS2 “ I 
to make that a definite ob¬ 
jective point, and that each 
individual tree will have to 
be carefully looked after 
several times during the year 
for the various operations of 
pruning, spraying, fertiliz¬ 
ing, etc. 
Drainage and Position 
For successful results, all 
fruit trees require thorough 
drainage. In all positions, 
except those in a hollow, where the water level in the soil can¬ 
not be lowered by opening up the sub-soil, the method of 
preparing the ground for the trees described below will gener¬ 
ally prove effective without resorting to the expense of tile 
draining; but thorough drainage at whatever trouble must 
precede the possibility of good fruit. 
Air drainage is almost as important as soil drainage, es¬ 
pecially with peaches and varieties of the other fruits which 
may lose their crops as the result of late spring frosts. Cold 
air, being heavier than light, flows down into any natural 
hollow or “pocket,” with the result that in such places there 
will often be a killing frost, while similar vegetation only 
slightly elevated above the “dead line” will escape without in¬ 
jury. On the other hand a too-sheltered position, such as the 
south side of an embankment or a tight wall, or of a building, 
often is just as dangerous, by starting the tree into premature 
activity in the spring, when the buds break before they should 
and get nipped. As a general rule apples, American plums, 
the hardier variety of pears, and sour cherries may be given 
the most exposed places; peaches, foreign plums, sweet cher¬ 
ries and grapes, the sunny and sheltered ones. 
If you decide to have fruit at all, put in enough varieties 
so that it will be worth your while to look after them care¬ 
fully. Dwarf apple trees may be set as close as 8', but 10' 
or 12' will be better unless you expect to keep them well 
pruned. Standard trees vary considerably in the room they 
require, according to variety, but the smaller and medium- 
Unproductive limbs, decay from neglected cuts or wounds and “black knot” can usually be found 
in the old trees that have had no attention 
