EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 221 



their business, and sell trees true to name and at fair prices, the proportion 

 is very small. Too often they fill orders for new and high-priced varieties, 

 with seedlings, or with cull or surplus stock, made up of any and all 

 varieties purchased from some grower. As a rule his prices for trees of 

 standard varieties are from two to five times what they can be obtained 

 for direct from the nurseryman, and the novelties, many of which are 

 frauds on their very face, have not been sufficiently tested to determine 

 their value, and are seldom worth the price charged for them. While the 

 large grower can not, as a rule, afford to get his trees from a tree agent, 

 there may be instances, when only a few trees of common sorts are wanted, 

 when the order can be given with safety, if the agent is known to represent 

 a reliable firm, and the trees can be obtained as cheaply as when obtained 

 direct and the carriage paid. The general rule can be given, that it is 

 unwise, from a commercial standpoint, to order from an agent a novelty 

 of which nothing is known except what can be learned from the gorgeous 

 plates he shows, and his lauding words. 



It has been stated that it is well to purchase trees grown in a similar 

 climate and soil. This is not because other trees may not be as good of 

 themselves, but because trees placed under conditions unlike those under 

 which they have been grown are obliged to accustom themselves to the 

 changed conditions. This is especially true of trees grown in a warm 

 climate, where the soil is rich and moist, and carried to a cooler climate 

 with a short season and a dry, sandy soil. The original growth will be soft 

 and watery, and with the usual amount of roots found on nursery trees it 

 will be found necessary to cut the top back severely, thus giving an added 

 check to the trees. It is not uncommon, when the large, bare stem is exposed 

 in this way, for the bark to be burned, and if the tree recovers at all it will 

 not be for several years. These conditions and results are more common 

 with the cherry and pear than with the peach. 



AGE AND SIZE OF TKEES. 



A tree one year from the bud is of the proper age for planting, and any- 

 thing older should be rejected at any price. In digging a two-year-old 

 tree, all of the branching roots are cut off, and when set out it does not 

 recover itself until the second year, by which time a vigorous one-year tree 

 will have caught up with it, and will soon outstrip it. A medium-size 

 tree is best to plant, a large tree with its soft, watery stem and branches 

 being rejected for the reasons given above. Trees whose small size is 

 owing to a poor soil, or unfavorable season, may, if placed in good soil, 

 make a satisfactory growth, but it is often the case that the small size of 

 cull trees is owing to some inherent weakness in the stock or scion, and, 

 although they may in time outgrow it, the slight saving in price is not 

 enough to insure the risk. 



Of fully as much and probably of more importance than the size and shape 

 of the top is the condition of the roots. They should be well-branched and 

 the divisions should not be less than six inches in length. While this will 

 not be the entire length of the roots in trees one year from bud, the tissues 

 of the roots will be so soft that rootlets will readily be sent out. 



CARE OF THE TREES BEFORE PLANTING. 



If a grower raises his own trees they should be dug in the fall and care- 

 fully heeled in, in some well-drained place, convenient to the orchard site. 



