RECTANGULAR.--The method of setting or the arrangement of the trees will greatly influence the number of trees which may be put upon an acre and the distance apart of the trees in the row. The most common method in the past has been the regular square or rectangular method, e.g., trees forty by forty feet, or forty by fifty feet, and rows at right angles, and this is still preferred by many. It is easy to lay out an orchard on this plan and there is less liability of making mistakes. It is best adapted to regular fields with right angle corners, especially where the orchard is to be cropped with a regular rotation. All tillage operations are most easily performed in orchards set on this plan. A slight modification of this arrangement which is often advisable, especially where fillers are used, is to set a tree in the center of the square. The trees then stand like the five spots of a domino, and the shortest distance between trees will be about twenty-seven feet when the trees in the regular rows are forty by forty feet apart. This plan practically doubles the number of trees which can be set on an acre. HEXAGONAL OR TRIANGULAR.--Another method of arrangement of the trees which is becoming more and more popular is the hexagonal or triangular system. More trees can be planted on an acre by this plan than by any other, it being very economical of space. It makes all adjacent trees equally distant from each other and is really a system of equilateral triangles. This plan is better adapted to small areas and especially to irregular ones, and should be employed where land is expensive and culture very intensive. It is more difficult to set an orchard after this method without error, and it is open to the objection of inconvenience in cultural operations. Most people forget that while the rows running cornerwise in a rectangular or square field set after this plan may be a standard distance apart, yet the right angle rows (not trees) in which it may be more convenient to work are actually much closer together. The best plan to follow to get the rows of trees straight on a level field is what is known as the outside stake method. This plan requires the placing of a row of stakes on each of the four sides of the field where the trees are to be set and usually about two rows each way through the middle. For this purpose ordinary building laths are best, about one hundred and fifty laths, or three bundles, being required for five acres, which is as large a unit as can be set at once by this plan. _First_, determine the distance from the road or fence to the first tree row, which would be at least eighteen feet to allow for turning the teams, and establish base lines on each side of the field at right angles to each other.