STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 59 



pcacli growing, notwithstanding the difficulties suggested, and many more which will be 

 met with in practice, because I have an abiding faith that all these obstacles may be 

 overcome, and that success will attend a sufficient amount of labor rightly directed. 



But I would if I could. Impress upon all, that 8UCC6S8 is not as easy and certain as has 

 been supposed, and that it requires thought, study, labor and more knowledge than 

 many of us now po.-scss, to make it sure and permanent. 



PROCURING TREES. 



Among the first and most important considerations, after having selected a suitable 

 location for a peach orchard, is the procuring of suitable trees to plant. Trees are 

 usually procured from the nurseries, as most people are unwilling to wait long enough 

 to take the trouble of raising them themselves. This is sometimes the first cause of fail- 

 ure. Without intending to intimate the least want of integrity among nurserymen, a 

 very useful as well as respectable class of citizens, my experience, as well as information 

 from others, has satisfied me that very few, if any, of the large nurseries can be relied 

 upon to furnish precisely the kind and varieties of trees ordered. Yet it is essential to 

 the success of every orchard that only the best varieties be planted, and In proper pro- 

 portion to each other with regard to the time of ripening. The difficulty in obtaining 

 the varieties desired is not always the fault of the nurserymen. It is partly owing to 

 the confusion of names of varieties in the books and among fruit growers. Whether any 

 thing can lie done to remedy this evil by adopting some more definite and reliable sys- 

 tem of nomenclature, I am not prepared to say, but it is quite certain that beyond a 

 very few well known varieties like the Crawford, one is as likely to obtain from the nur- 

 sery a different variety as the one ordered, or supposed to be ordered. For example : 

 " Trot b's Early " is regarded in my neighborhood as among the most valuable sorts, but 

 at least two distinct varieties are grown there, in some cases, in the same orchard, both 

 obtained from the nurseries under the name of " Troth's Early." The peaches are some- 

 what similar, but there is about two weeks difference in the time of ripening, and the 

 last In ripening appears more subject to rot than the other. 



In many cases, varieties entirely worthless are sent out from the most respectable nur- 

 series, in place of those they are represented to be. Of course this is done by mistake 

 and not by design. The result to tho purchaser, however, is the same in either case, 

 and I have never heard of the nurseryman who was willing to make adequate reparation 

 for the injury to the orchanlist. In large nurseries, where the principal part of the labor 

 must be performed by employees, some mistakes are perhaps unavoidable. Buds have 

 been taken from my own orchard for nurseries, before the trees had ever borne fruit' 

 when the only Information I could give as to die varieties, was derived from the labels 

 attached in the nursery, which labels in several instances were found to be incorrect 

 when the trees came into bearing. Of course, trees propagated in this careless manner 

 are unreliable. 



Probably there Is a -mall class of nurserymen who do not care what kind of trees they 

 furnish, provided they get paid lor them, for we are compelled to believe that there are 

 some dishonest men in every kind of business, unless fruit growers are an exception. If, 

 however, tin- trees must be bought, we must apply to the most reliable nursery we can 

 find, and take the risk. But a more excellent way and a much safer method of procur- 

 ing trees, is to raise them from the seed, bud them from bearing trees, the fruit of which 

 we have seen and tested, and thus avoid all mistakes in varieties, arising either from the 



