The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1912-02-02


at Oregon and Washinetoss Special
PLANTING THE ORCHARD.
BY Prof. C. l. Lewis. Department Of Horticulture
Oregon Agricultural College.
A large acreage Of young orchards
will be planted on the Pacific coast
this season. Many Of the orchardists
are adding new paintings to their
present holdings, but great many
people will be planting new orchards
and it will be their first experience
along this line. These new people
should try and avoid many of the
mistakes that were made in the
past. such as too close planting
planting OF poor trees and the use
of the wrong system. Many of the
growers have planted thicker with
the idea of thinning out later, but
one could find that they made mis-
take in their mathematical calcula.
ton and that they have to take out
a great many more trees than they
expected to. The first thing to OBJ
serve in establishing the young orch
ard is to get good trees. Get nothing
but one year old trees The larger
the trees are at the base the better.
Trees Of a good caliber are better
than trees of extreme height. Good
sturdy medium grown stock is to
be preferred and where one can get
a good root development it is also
advantageous. 1t is often desirable
to visit the nursery to look over the
trees before you purchase. The nur-
serymen always welcome visitors,
and will gladly show the prospec-
tive planter the trees which they
have on hand. In many cases it
will be impossible to get the trees
you desire owing to the large de-
mand. Prune trees have been in
very heavy demand the past year.
Some varieties of pears have been
hard to obtain, as well as apples.
The rule should be to order early.
Get your orders in by summer so
as to be on the safe side. The
number of trees that you will put
to the acre will depend upon the
system that you will use in estab-
fishing your orchard and the distance
will also be Influenced by such sub
jects as type of fruit, nature of soil
and elevation. For instance, you
should give greater distance on the
strong clay loans or rich river bot
tom loans than on the lighter and
thinner loans. Generally on the
lower elevations one allows greater
distance than on the higher eleva-
tons. This is especially true when
the higher elevation begins to ap-
proach the limits of the tree growth,
although right here in western Ore
gon, on our hill lands of the William
cite Valley we would not probably
need to give as great a distance as
we would on the river bottom lands
On our hill lands I would plant ap-
pies rs to % feet, while on the very
strong soils would put them from
80 to 35 feet. Pears from 20 to 25
feet, mature sweet cherries will need
from % to 40 feet, while the sour
cherries should have about 20 feet.
Walnuts need 40 to 60 feet. Before
determining the exact number of
trees you need, you will have to
know the system you are going to
use in planting. The three systems
used are the Rectangular. Hexagonal
and Quincunx. The Rectangular sys-
tenn means that the trees are planted
in squares or rectangles. It's chief
advantage is the ease of cultivation,
especially after the trees become
older. It does not give as many
trees to the acre and the trees are
not as equally distributed as regards
area of ground upon which they feed
or in regard to the distribution of
light. The Hexagonal system is a
w GU Tn nj q
trees are planted in hexagons, or we
could say they are planted in a
circle with tree in the center. It
Is laid out on the basis of an equil-
ateral triangle. It's advantages are
that 1t gives Is per cent trees more
to the acre than that of the rectan-
gular and also gives an equal dis
tributiOn of the trees over the prop
erty. 1t Is harder system in which
to use filters from horticultural
point of view and it is more diff
cult to cultivate it successfully after
the trees become matured. The third
system is the Quincunx. It means
setting out in fives which is mod
if1cation of the rectangular or square.
Simply add tree in the center of
each. It is probably the best system
to use for filters gives Is per cent
more trees to the acre than the rec
tangular. The number of trees to
the acre are given in the following
table:
Distance Rec Quin- Hex
apart. tangular. cunx. agonal.
16x16 ITO 3O3 1876
18x1S ...134 239 154
2Ox20 ..1O8 1872 124
22x22 .... 80 14S 1O4
24x24 rs 1872 81
25x25 ........ 20 1875 80