The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1905-12-01

now lar apart Trees SuOulu De plduISu.
Remember that apple trees are now
under consideration. Other kinds of
trees will be considered under their
appropriate heads. Fruit growers are
not of one mind as to how far apart
apple trees should be set in the orch
ard. Some advocate planting no more
than a rod apart, and then follow the
practice of heavy pruning to keep them
from crowding. This is one extereme.
The other is to plant forty or fifty feet
apart so that the trees will not crowd
if they live and bear for hundred
years. The writer would not recon-
mend either of these extremes. Trees
set one rod apart and kept so pruned
that we can get in between the rows to
spray or to haul out the fruit will never
be in the most healthy condition. Prun-
ing is absolutely necessary in fruit
growing and will be considered at the
proper place in these articles but, re-
member, it is not the natural thing in
tree growth. Very heavy pruning will
leave the tree in some measure in
sickly condition. 1t may bear heavily,
too heavily, in this condition but it is
dying all the time.
The other extreme of having trees
forty or fifty feet apart has many OBJ
jections. There is a waste of one-half
of the ground for a period of fifteen
or twenty years. The idea that the
trees may not crowd when fifty or d
hundred years old has this objection,
viz, no intelligent grower wants trees
to live and bear so long. A tree fifty
years old has long since passed it's
usefulness. The fruit will be inferior
in size and quality at such an age; it
will be hard to properly spray such
tree and it will be slow and expensive
work to gather the fruit We can make
more money to renew our orchards
once in twenty-five or thirty years than
to try to keep the old trees in proper
condition. The idea of having a tree
one or two hundred years old and still
bearing may appeal to sentiment but
has nothing else in it worthy of con-
sideration.
The question is quite often asked if
it is not desirable to plant apple trees
wide apart and then use filters. This
is a method of planting that is apt to
be popular with inexperienced begin
ners and quite the reverse with men of
long experience. What is the objection
to the use of fillers? 1t is just this:
Not one man in thousand has the
nerve to cut out these filters at the
right time We are so apt to say to
ourselves: "Just one more crop before
l dig out these bearing trees that are
bringing me good returns" The writer
knows what he is saying when this
subject is treated in this way. Elk
perience is worth more than theory in
such matters. A leading horticulture
ist in Illinois and president of the
state horticultural society, few years
ago, offered 500 for the picture of the
man who had shown that he had the
nerve to cut out these filters at the
right time. 1t is reported that he still
has his hundred dollars.
After long experience and much
study the writer would recommend
that apple trees be planted not more
than thirty feet apart and not less
than twenty-five. Some difference
might be made in varieties for some
trees are much more spreading in their
habits of growth than others. But it.
is doubtful if there is enough in this
to warrant a difference in planting
Some soils will produce more vigorous
trees than others, but the writer would
not depart from his rule on account of
that. There are several methods of
arranging the rows but only two are
worthy to be considered. One is the
right angle system and the other is
known as the triangular system. The
writer much prefers the use of the
triangle. One of the chief reasons is
that the ground is more evenly occu-
pied. Trees will grow and do well
planted by either plan. But there is
something to be panied by having the
limbs reach out into the unoccupied
space in the middle of the rows rather
than to meet each other and interlock