IMPLEMENTS REQUIRED.-The outfit for laying off and staking land consists of a chain, an axe, four or five flags (poles with bits of cloth fastened at the top) and a plentiful supply of stakes. Stakes a foot in length will do, but the work is nicer with laths three or four feet long, since one can sight along a row of them without getting down upon the ground too close for comfort. The flags are serviceable for designating corners and points to be seen from a long distance. THE PLANTING CHAIN.-The best and cheapest chain that I have found is one made of annealed wires twisted about a cord and in common use as "clothes line wire." To make it serviceable for planting, fasten some large iron rings at the ends for hand-holds and space the wire off in the length decided upon for distances between trees by running a fine wire between the strands and fastening a piece of cloth or a tag thereto. The length of the chain may depend somewhat upon the length of the rows to be planted, though two hundred feet is about a maximum limit for convenient handling. In spacing the wire off, it is a good plan to make the end spaces conform to the distance adopted for the margin of the orchard, then all intermediate spaces represent distances between trees. Thus, if the margin be twelve feet and the distances between trees twenty, the chain will be thus marked: A A A chain of heavier wire than that I have described is sometimes made in links joined with small rings, but this is objectionable on account of kinking. Rope should never be employed, as the shrinking and stretching while in use preclude anything like accuracy. A HELPER.-The work of measuring and staking requires two people; a smart boy will do for a helper. FIG. 2-ESTABLISHING A RECTANGLE. Extend the base line A B any distance, say one hundred feet, to C. Mark the points E and C equal distances from B, say one hundred feet each. Then take a rope or chain longer than E B C (in this case three hundred feet) with a knot or tag exactly in the middle. Fasten one end of the rope at E and the other end at C; draw the rope out as shown in E D C. The knot or loop being in the middle will fall at D, giving a perpendicular to the base line A E B C. By standing at B and *sighting across B D, the point F may be established at any required distance, giving a corner of the orchard ground, and then, by measurement, the point G may also be fixed. You then have the boundary of the orchard in the form of the rectangle A B F G. DISTANCES APART.-Orange trees are planted from ten to thirty feet apart according to their habits of growth. Dwarfs like the Mandarin may be advantageously placed ten feet apart; semi-dwarfs, such as the Washington Navel, Mediterranean Semi-dwarfs-eighteen feet, CHAPTER IX. ARRANGING AN ORCHARD-THE SQUARE SYSTEM. THREE SYSTEMS.-There are three popular systems for the arrangement of trees in an orchard: 1st: The square system. 2d: The quincunx system. 3d: The septuple system. HOW TO STAKE BY THIS SYSTEM.-The boundary lines of the orchard ground being already established, determine how much margin you will leave between the outside rows of trees and the boundary lines. It is generally inexpedient to plant It is with the first named that this chap- trees directly upon the outer lines, as that ter deals. would bring the orchard flush with a road or fence or hedge, or with some neighbor's property. The margin usually allowed is from ten to twenty feet, according to the character of the trees and the confidence one has in the public. FIG. 6-THE FIRST ROW OF TREES. This work of staking is most expeditiously done by drawing the chain tense and fastening it to the ground with an iron pin at each end. Then yourself and assistant, each with an armful of stakes, advance from your opposite stations, placing a stake at each tag until you meet in the middle of the ground. Then retrace your steps, stretch the chain for the next row and repeat the operation. It is best to make the end tag of the chain tally with the pins in one check-row all the way through. For example, if you adopt a b, Fig. 5, as the tally-row, do not be concerned if the last tag at the other end of the chain does not always touch the pin in the row cd. Make your orchard straight on one side, and let the other side take care of itself. Should the tag and pin on the off side fail to agree exactly, pull out the pin and make it conform to the tag. REVIEWING THE WORK. After the staking is completed it is a good plan to review the work by sighting along each row, both up and down and across the orchard. Any inaccuracies may thus be detected in time for correction. When it comes to this operation of sighting, you will find it an advantage if the stakes have been set in the ground at a perpendicular. Don't question this statement until you cast your eye along a line of irregularly leaning stakes and see how confusing it is. NUMBER OF TREES TO THE ACRE.-To compute the number of trees that can be planted on an acre by the square system: RULE.-1st, Multiply the distance apart in the row by the distance between rows. This will give the number of square feet occupied by each tree. 2d, Divide 43,560, the number of square feet in an acre, by the number of square feet occupied by each tree, and the quotient will be the number of trees to the acre. EXAMPLE.-How many trees on an acre if planted 22 by 24 feet apart? = 528. 22 X 2443,560 528 to the acre. CHAPTER X. THE QUINCUNX SYSTEM. QUINCUNX DEFINED.-Webster defines the word quincunx as follows: "An arrangement or disposition of things by tives in a square, one being placed in the middle of the square; especially an arrangement as of trees, in squares, consisting of five trees, one at each corner, and a fifth in the middle, this order being repeated indefinitely so as to form a regular group, with rows, or ranks, running in various directions." 3d. Quincunx is also employed in the planting of seedling and budded orange trees in the same orchard, the four corners of the square being occupied by standard trees and the middle points by budded varieties, which make a lesser growth. HOW TO STAKE ON THE QUINCUNX SYSTEM.-Stake the two check rows the same as for square pianting except that you double the number of stakes. For example, if the trees in the square are to be ILLUSTRATION.-The quincunx figure is twenty-four feet apart, with an extra quinthus illustrated: cunx tree in the middle, place the stakes in the check rows twelve feet apart. ARRANGING THE PLANTING CHAIN.— To the planting chain attach an extra tag, as X, Fig. 9, one-half the established dis FIG. 7-QUINCUNX. Extended in a regular group it becomes tance from the tag A. the following: X A B FIG. 8-QUINCUNX GROUP. HOW QUINCUNX PLANTING IS AVAILABLE.-This system of planting is resorted to mainly under the following conditions: 1st. By those who have orchards already planted on the square system, and who wish to increase the number of trees without enlarging the area. 2d. By those who wish to plant both citrus and deciduous trees in the same orchard with a view, generally, of cutting away the deciduous trees when the citrus come into bearing. With Quincunx planting they can at pleasure dispense with the middle tree in each group of five, and leave the remaining orchard in regular rows. It is necessary to tally with the tag A in each odd row, and with the tag X in each even row, thus A, X, A, X; shifting the chain back and forth like a shuttlecock. This will bring the orchard in regular quincunx order, as shown in Fig. 8. PULL UP UNNECESSARY STAKES.-The staker should be careful to pull up all the intermediate stakes in the check rows, as n, o, p, q, r, s, etc., Fig. 10, since they are merely check stakes and do not denote places for trees like the stakes a, b, c, etc. The stakes marked o, Fig. 12, are the ones to come out; their work is done as soon as the chain is stretched. NUMBER OF TRRES TO THE ACRE.-To ascertain the number of trees to the acre by the Quincunx system, observe the following: RULE.-1st. Compute the number of trees in the regular squares, as shown in Chapter X. 2d. Multiply this result by two. 3d. From the product subtract the number of intermediate (Quincuux) trees on two sides of the orchard, plus 1. EXAMPLE.-How many trees on an acre of ground planted Quincunx, the trees om regular squares being twenty-four feet apart? The table, Chapter X, shows that at twenty-four feet apart, Square system, there are 76 trees to the acre. 76 X 2 = 152. 152 (8+8+1)=135. Ans., 135 trees. ANOTHER RULE.-An approximate rulefor finding the number of trees to an acre, quincunx, is to ascertain the number of trees on the regular squares, and add 78 per cent. thereto. *NOTE. It is assumed that the acre of ground taken for illustration is in a square form, and that there are eight intermediate or Quincunx trees along each side. The (8-1-8-|-1) represents the inside trees along two sides, plus one, as given in the rule. CHAPTER XI. THE SEPTUPLE SYSTEM. A MISNOMER CORRECTED.-The system of planting which I designate Septuple has hitherto been known as Quincunx, the term being applied almost indiscriminately to this system and the one described in the preceding chapter. Great confusion has resulted from this misapplication and conflict of terms, some writers even going to the length of calling the Septuple "the true Quincunx," and repudiating the other, or genuine Quincunx system, altogether. This is error carried to the point of fanaticism, and offers no reasonable way out of the dilemma. Clearly there are two distinct systems of planting here confounded, and they ought to be designated by different names.. It is manifest by the definition quoted in the preceding chapter that there is an oldestablished and well-defined system of planting known as Quincunx; that it is by fives-four trees on a square and one in the middle-as shown in the iilustration.. To this system, then, the title properly belongs. If some other system is devised which comprehends the planting of trees in an essentially different group—say by sevens instead of fives-it is clearly a misnomer to call that system Quincunx also. At the risk, then, of stirring up a hornet's |
