American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1911-03-04
Agricultural Department
From the Boise Capital News.
BEGINNING A YOUNG ORCHARD.
By Chas.A. Cole, of Lewiston, Idaho.

fourth Of foot Ii the soil shows
no indication of hardpan, or rock il
will be. sufficient depth to produce
a good tree.
Buying the proper kind OF soil is
only the beginning of establishing
an orchard. Many prospective fruit
gre wers get past this state with
flying colors. then make a complete
failure. They seam to think that
good soil is all that is necessary Use
plenty of good common sense in pre-
pairing your land to receive the tree
II you have purch ased new land the
native growth has to be removed
II iC is sagebrush, the task is light
in comparison with the heavy tim
bere1 section of the rainy belt. II
the land is to be irrigated. thorough
ly level the surface before setting
the trees, as good job connot be
done after the trees are out. and
1t is very expensive job to irrigate
uneyen land II the land is tim
bered, the stumps will have to be
either blasted. grubbed or pulled by
donkey engines. this will leave the
ground very uneven and leveling wiz
be necessary whether irrigation is
to be practiced or not. 1t is advis-
able to crop the soil to some culti-
waited crop for at least one season
before setting the trees. The object
is. in the sagebrush country. to let
the soil settle thoroughly, and in
the timber to allow the trash to
partly decay so that soil will pack
closer. The trash forms too many
air spaces in the soil and as a result
unless irrigation is resorted to, the
tree will make a very small growth
for the first season.
Most old land. or soil that has
been under cultivation few years
is comparatively easy TO prepare for
receiving the young trees. There
is one exception and that = lani n
which fruit trees have ben grow
ing. Don't set trees on this kind Cf
land until il is brought back OF lie
by several of crop rotation. II the
fertility of the soil has been run
down by continually cropping grain
grow sum such crop as clover or
vetch and then plow it under If
you can't wait, and put it in the
holes, then SOW cover crops Of vetch
and rye in between the rows. SOW
the last of August. leaving space
of two feet for the young tree. Put
in the seed with a drill.
LINING up the orchard is also an
important step. OF course, trees will
grow Just as we'll by one system as
by an other, that Is, provided the
sane treatment is given each tree.
The systems most commonly used
are the square, qufncunx and hexa-
gonal. You see that the square Is
very simple, and the quincunx Is a
square with a tree in the center. Th
hexagonal can better be illustrated
by drawing a circle and cutting it u
into six equal segments, each seq
ment is equal to one half the di-
ameter of the circle. A tree is set
at each intersection in the circle and
one in the center. This gives you
an orchard with each tree exactly
the same distance from every other
tree. In the other two systems this
is not true. The number OF trees
you will get to the acre are as fol-
lows: Let US take 100. for example.
II we were setting an acre of ground
to fruit trees, and by using a GER
tain distance we would get 100 trees
| by the square system, the Quicunx
would give us IT'S and the hexagon-
al lis trees. These figures will
give you an idea of what you should
! expect. You might ask me what
would be my preference. / will
not hesitate to say the square sys-
TEN, as l think that the land can be
more easily handled. The other
/ system throws the actual rows pret-
( ty close together.
After the trees are all set go over
( the orchard and head them back to
about 25 or 80 inches. Incutting Of
the top catch hold of the tree below
where il is 10 be cut, so that there
will be no danger of loosening the
roots.
l There is a great deal of discus