10 
HARRISONS’ NURSERIES 
and care for it five years, you want to make it pay as much as possible and as 
quickly as possible. It is a plain business proposition. Because of this, we say 
plant two or three of the best-paying varieties and then grow crops between the 
rows. We advise every planter of an apple orchard to put peach trees between 
the apple trees as fillers for the first eight or ten years, if you want to grow 
peaches and the land is suited to peaches. If the land is not adapted for peaches, 
plant Apple fillers and grow beans, peas, tomatoes, early potatoes, or other 
vegetables between the rows of trees for two or three years. The use of fillers 
and intercrops will make your orchard pay from the very beginning. Early 
bearing^ of fruit trees depends somewhat on treatment but to a larger extent on 
the varieties planted. York Imperial and Yellow Transparent, especially, will 
bear abundantly when they are from four to six years old. 
Number of Trees or Plants to an Acre. The following table will show how 
many trees or plants are required for an acre at any distance apart: 
Feet 
Square 
Triangular 
Feet 
Square 
Triangular 
apart 
method 
method 
apart 
method 
method 
40 
27 trees 
31 trees 
10 
435 trees 
505 trees 
35 
35 trees 
40 trees 
8 
680 trees 
775 trees 
30 
50 trees 
55 trees 
6 
1,210 trees 
1,600 trees 
25 
70 trees 
80 trees 
5 
1,745 trees 
2,010 trees 
20 
110 trees 
125 trees 
4 
2,722 trees 
3,145 trees 
18 
135 trees 
155 trees 
3 
4,840 trees 
5,590 trees 
15 
195 trees 
225 trees 
2 
10,890 trees 
12,575 trees 
12 
305 trees 
350 trees 
1 
43,560 trees 
50,300 trees 
Trees sometimes can be planted to advantage farther apart one way than 
another. To do this, you have to work out the plan for your own orchards. 
This plan works best on steep hills. The rows should follow the lines of the hill 
to make driving easier. No rules can be laid down for hillside arrangement. 
Use some modification of the plans given here. (See diagrams.) 
Cultivation of Orchards.^ Cultivation keeps the trees supplied with avail¬ 
able plant-food and saves moisture. Young orchards of any kind always should 
be cultivated clean, from early spring until in July. Plow or tear up the soil as 
soon as ground is dry enough to work, harrow after every rain, and every week 
or ten days until it is time to sow the cover-crop or mulch for winter. Keep 
them hustling. 
Cover-Crops. A cover-crop should be sown in the latter part of the summer, 
when trees have made their growth for the year, and when both fruit and'trees 
have begun to ripen. Cover-crops hold the soil together and keep it from leach¬ 
ing out and gullying, and also newly sown plants take up water in great amounts 
and take it away from the trees. This is the thing desired at this time, for tree- 
growth needs a check then. Young plants require a great deal of nitrogen, but 
less potash and phosphorus. As the cover-crop grows, it feeds largely on the 
nitrogen, leaving much potash and phosphorus for the trees just when they 
need them most. Cowpeas, vetch, rye, and the clovers make excellent cover- 
cmps. 
Fertilizing. Stable manure is one of the best fertilizers for feeding a young 
growing orchard. Scatter the manure on top of the ground around the trees, at 
least as far from the trunks as the branches extend so that the fine fibrous roots 
can take up the fertilizing elements. 
Make your soil fine and loose before you add fertilizer, and you will not need 
to add so much. No two pieces of land are alike in plant-food needs. Learn to 
know what elements are lacking, and supply them in right proportions. 
Potash, nitrogen, and phosphoric acid are the plant-foods that have to be 
supplied? Nitrogen usually is best obtained through leguminous cover-crops. 
Potash and phosphorus have to be supplied in chemical form. 
Nitrogen is the growing material, making wood and size in fruit; potash goes 
into fruit largely, making flavor and color; phosphoric acid goes into wood and 
seeds, but only a fifth as much of it is used as of potash. 
Get plant-foods on the ground evenly, over a space at least twice ds wide as 
the branches cover, and apply them at the right season. 
Double crops pay, but you must supply plant-food and moisture for every¬ 
thing that grows on the land. Do not rob the trees. 
At prices quoted, trees are delivered at Berlin freight or express office 
