The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1910-01-13
planting and Care of Orchards"

This was the subject of paper
read this morning by E. C. Burling-
! anne of Walla Walla. The following
| extract of his address was of especial
interest tc those expecting to plant
the coming spring:
Planting.
I'm planting an orchard great
| care should be taken not to get the
trees too close together. Figuring
all the time ten or twelve years
ahead, the orchard grower should
picture himself the size of the tree
when it will be ten or twelve years
olj-and plant accordingly. One of
the chief causes of so many small
size, inferior looking apples is the
trees having been planted too close
| together. Hardly two fruit growers
agree on just how far apart the
trees should be, but the progressive
fruit grower of today is giving his
trees plenty of sunshine and room
for thorough cultivation with teams
| between the trees. My orchards that
/ have been planting the past year
or two are planted on the hexagonal
plan thirty feet apart, with filler
| equal the number of the original
trees, leaving my orchard rows TWEEN
| ty-six feet apart and the trees fifteen
| feet apart in the row. l am using an
early, quick bearing fruit tree for the
filters thereby enabling me to Sc
cure an early return from the orch
ard. The Rome Beauty or the Jona-
than make excellent filters, commenc-
ing to bear the third year and at five
years yielding about two boxes to the
tree. AS soon as the permanent or
chard commences to crowd the filler
trees the size of the latter should be
reduced so as not to crowd the per-
mahent trees. The filters should be
allowed to bear as long as possible
without injury to the permanent or
chard, and should then be taken out.
| Some orchardists argue that one of
the drawbacks of the filler tree is
that the planter will not cut the filler
out on account of the money he is
receiving from it. That might have
been the method pursued by orchard
| lists in former days, but l believe the
intelligent fruit grower of today will
not hesitate to remove the trees that
he knows are menace to the future
welfare of his orchard.
I'm digging the holes for the trees
| / make it rule to dig large, deep
hole, say two feet to two and one
half feet in diameter and not less
than two feet deep, in good soil; and
where hardpan exists-as it does in
some localities in this country-if
from six to eighteen inches thick, /
| invariably go entirely through the
hardpan, even though I dig the hole
four and one-half feet deep. In re-
| moving the soil from the hole / al
ways place the top foot of soil in a
pile to one side by itself, placing the
soil below that in another pile by
itself; and after the hole is dug |
refill it to within eighteen inches of
the top with the best top soil in the
vicinity, leaving the soil taken from
foot below the surface to be scat
| tered on the top of the adjacent land.
This gives the young tree the bene-
fit of all the strength of the humus
in the top soil and gives it fine bed
to start it's young roots in; and. in
the case of the hardpan, gives oppor-
tunity for the roots to go down and
leaves drainage through the hard
pan for any surplus water that might
naturally accumulate there"
Jumped Up Rabbit Question.
At the close of the address by Mr..
Burlingame the question of "Rab-
bits" was jumped up. Mr.. Burlingame
suggested that the use OF hogs or
cows liver rubbed on the trees was
effective. The rabbit fence was dis
cussed. A Trinidad man said that
they had found poison to be effective
in his country. w. A. Grant of We
natchee said that his experience was
that If there were any coyotes around
the rabbits never bother any. The
idea of using poison seemed to meet
| with favor.
Better Fruit for Washington.
p. S. Darlington, fruit inspector
of this district. gave an address on
Better Fruit for Washington. Mr..
Darlington reviewed the decrease OF
the fruit production OF the Unite 1
States, especially in the east for the
past twenty years and contrasted the
increased production In this state,
basing his figures on the report of