PLANTING INSTRUCTIONS 
1. It is of great importance in the first place to put your land in good condition 
to receive your trees. The ground should be thoroughly plowed and followed by 
harrowing until the soil is well pulverized. Stake off the distance you intend to 
plant your trees apart; for this purpose it is best to use a planting chain; if no 
regular planting chain can be procured from the hardware dealers anyone can 
make their own planting chain with wire. One hundred feet of wire will answer 
every purpose, and the designing mark can be made by soldering buttons on the 
wire at whatever distance you wish to plant your stock apart. 
2. As soon as the trees are received, remove from the bales or boxes, and heel 
them in the ground, thoroughly settling with water. This will insure the stock 
keeping in first-class condition until ready to plant. When planting, see that the 
holes are dug sufficiently large to admit the roots in natural form. All bruised or 
broken roots should be cut away to a smooth surface with a sharp knife. The tree 
should stand just a trifle deeper than it did in the nursery row. It is also very im¬ 
portant after planting an orchard to settle the earth around the roots by liberal 
application of water. The cause of trees failing to start in many instances is due to 
failure to settle the soil around the roots. 
4. All deciduous fruit trees should be cut back to within 18 inches from the 
top of the ground. Instead of removing all the lateral limbs when topping the 
tree, a sufficient number of these laterals should be left to form a head. Shorten 
in the laterals to within two inches of the body of the tree. The trees as a general 
rule have limbs removed while standing in the nursery rows to within 12 inches 
of the ground. It is always a good plan not to remove the lateral limbs entirely, 
so that in case the buds on the main body of the tree do not start in the spring, 
the buds on the smaller branches will. 
4. For more explicit directions regarding planting, pruning and caring for your 
orchards by all means procure a copy of Prof. Wickson’s Book on California 
Fruits and How to Grow Them, mention of which is made elsewhere. This work is 
very complete and it covers Fruit Growing in detail. 
DISTANCES FOR PLANTING 
Standard Apples .25 to 30 feet apart each way 
Standard Pears .20 to 24 
Strong-growing Cherries . 20 to 24 
Duite and Morello Cherries.18 to 20 
Standard Plums and Prunes.20 to 24 
Peaches and Nectarines. 20 to 24 
Apricots .24 to 30 
Almonds .24 to 30 
Walnuts ... 40 to 50 
Grapes . 7 to 10 
Currants and Gooseberries. 4 by 6 feet 
Raspberries and Blackberries.3 to 4 by 5 to 7 
Strawberries for field culture. 1 to 1% by 4 to 5 “ 
Dist 
nee. 
1 foot apart each way, number plants. 
2 feet 
3 
4 
5 
6 
8 
9 
id 
12 
14 
15 
16 
18 
20 
22 
24 
25 
30 
35 
40 
50 
to 2 feet apart 
Square 
Equilateral 
Method 
Triangle Method 
43,560 
50,300 
10,890 
12,375 
4.840 
5,889 
2,722 
3,130 
1,742 
2,011 
1,210 
1,397 
807 
928 
680 
785 
537 
620 
435 
502 
302 
348 
222 
256 
193 
222 
170 
195 
134 
154 
109 
125 
90 
104 
75 
86 
69 
79 
48 
55 
35 
40 
27 
31 
18 
20 
the plants are apart in the rows, and the product will be the number of square feet for 
each plant or hill, which, divided into the number of feet in an acre (43,560), will give the 
number of plants or trees to the acre. 
,, Ru !?, - T Equ,,atera . 1 Triangle Method — Divide the number required to the acre “square 
method by the decimal .866. The result will be the number of plants required to the acre 
by this method. 
