ADAMS â At the moment, you have to look twice to see them, but take it from the experts, they are making Berkshire County history.
âTheyâ are 160 apple trees with trunks, if you can call them that, about the size of a pencil. They are unique because they are planted in level rows around the slope of the Jaeschke brothersâ farm in Adams â the first contour-planted orchard in Berkshire County.
Contour planting has a number of advantages that are bringing the system into ever-increasing use. Particularly in plowed fields, and to a lesser extent in orchards, planting around the contours holds surface water, thus preventing erosion, and also cuts down operating expenses since machinery always is moving on the level.