HOUSE AND GARDEN 
March, i9i i 
straw or coarse manure, to preserve moisture — care being taken, 
however, against field mice and other rodents. 
The trees may either be set in their permanent positions as 
soon as bought, or grown in “nursery rows” by the purchaser 
for one or two years after being purchased. In the former case, 
it will be the best policy to get the strongest, straight- 
est two-year stock you can find, even if they cost ten or fifteen 
cents apiece more than the “mediums.” The former method is 
the usual one, but the latter has so many advantages that I give 
it the emphasis of a separate paragraph, and urge every prospect¬ 
ive planter to consider it carefully. 
In the first place, then, you get your trees a little cheaper. 
If you purchase for “nursery row" planting, six to seven feet 
two-year old apple trees, of the standard sorts, should cost you 
about thirty cents each; one-year “buds,” six feet and branched, 
five to ten cents less. This gain, however, is not an important 
one — t here are 
four others, each 
of which makes it 
worth while to give 
the method a trial. 
First, the trees be¬ 
ing all together, 
and in a convenient 
place, the chances 
are a hundred to 
one that you will 
give them better 
attention in the 
way of spraying, 
pruning and culti¬ 
vating — all ex¬ 
tremely important 
in the first year’s 
growth. Second, 
with the year 
gained for extra 
preparation of the 
soil where they are 
to be placed per¬ 
manently, you can 
make conditions 
just right for them 
to take hold at once 
and thrive as they 
could not do other¬ 
wise. Third, the 
shock of transplanting will be much less than when they are 
shipped from a distance — they will have made an additional 
growth of dense, short roots and they will have become acclimated. 
Fourth, you will not have wasted space and time with any back¬ 
ward “black sheep" among the lot, as these should be discarded 
at the second planting. And then there is one further reason, 
psychological perhaps, but none the less important; you will watch 
these little trees, which are largely the result of your own labor 
and care when set in their permanent positions, much more care¬ 
fully than you would those direct from the nursery. I know, both 
from experience and observation, how many thrifty young trees 
are done to an untimely death by children, careless workmen, and 
other animals. 
So if you can put a twelve-month curb on your impatience, 
get one-year trees and set them out in a straight row right in 
your vegetable garden where they will take up very little room. 
Keep them cultivated just as thoroughly as the rest of your grow¬ 
ing things. Melons, or beans, or almost any low-growing vege¬ 
table can be grown close beside them. 
An orchard, after winter pruning. The trees 
are forced out laterally 
Fruit trees trained against the garden wall. It is easier, however, to 
grow them in the open 
If you want your garden to pay for your whole lot of fruit 
trees this season dig up a hole about three feet in diameter 
wherever a tree is to go permanently. Cut the sod up fine and 
work in four or five good forkfuls of well rotted manure, and 
on these places, when it is warm enough, plant a hill of lima pole- 
beans—the new sort named Giant-podded Pole Lima is the best 
I have yet seen. Place a stout pole, eight to ten feet high, firmly 
in each hole. Good lima beans are always in demand, and bring 
high prices. 
Let us suppose that your trees are at hand, either direct from 
the nursery or growing in the garden. You have selected, if 
possible, a moist, gravelly loam on a slope or slight elevation, 
where it is naturally and perfectly drained. Good soil drainage 
is imperative. Coarse gravel in the bottom of the planting hole 
will help out temporarily. If the land is in clover sod, it will 
have the ideal preparation, especially if you can grow a patch 
of potatoes or corn on it one year, while your trees are getting 
further growth. In such land the holes will not have to be pre¬ 
pared. If, however, you are not fortunate enough to be able to 
A dwarf cherry. The dwarf varieties are cheaper in first cost, and 
bear two years earlier; but the standard sorts are considered 
better 
