176 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



man, " smaller ones will be better in five years than these." " I 

 don't care ; I want big ones ; I may not live five years, and I want 

 fruit noio." Three or four years later the same planter called again. 

 Without waiting for an inquiry, the nurseryman remarked, " Well, 

 I have some fine large trees for you now." "Don't want 'em ! 

 Don't want 'em !" was the answer ; " I have had enough of large 

 trees. Thej'^ have cost me ten times as much trouble as the small 

 ones I took from necessity, and they have not grown an inch. I have 

 nursed them and doctored them, and they are the same size as 

 when I got them, and they bear a little half-sized fruit. The small 

 ones have gone by them, and are bearing fine large excellent 

 specimens." 



When the trees are on one's own land and only to be removed a 

 short distance, they can be successfully planted of larger size than 

 if they are to be packed and transported a considerable distance ; 

 but even then, those of six or seven feet in height are far better than 

 larger ones, and probably others half as large would soon out- 

 strip them. Experience is a very effectual teacher on this point, 

 and I have never seen a cultivator, whatever his age, who had 

 learned the lessons of ten years' experience and was still afraid of 

 a small tree — no matter how small, almost, so it be healthy and 

 thrifty. J. J. Thomas remarks : " When trees are to be sent some 

 distance the increased cost of larger ones in conveyance, in risk 

 and in packing is greater than a hasty observer has any idea of. 

 A tree, for example, which is twice the height and diameter of an- 

 other, is greater in weight in a cubic ratio. If a hundred of the 

 smaller weigh two hundred pounds, one hundred of the larger 

 will weigh eight hundred pounds, eight being the cube of two. A 

 single season's growth in the nursery often makes this difference 

 when young ; but it requires many years after being checked by 

 removal when large. There seems, indeed, to be every reason 

 why trees should be removed small, and everything against re- 

 moval when large. There is only one instance in which the larger 

 trees can have any advantage, or can maintain it for two or three 

 3'ears, and this is when both large and small are treated with total 

 neglect after setting out, so as barely to survive and not grow at 

 all. Both remaining stationary, the larger ones will of course 

 maintain their superiority in size. But all good cultivators dis- 

 card such treatment. Sir Joshua Reynolds said if he were to paint 

 a picture of Folly, it would be by representing a boy climbing over 

 a high wall with an open gate by his side. Had he lived now, he 



