The Bulletin. 57 



Una have a similar law, but some others do not. "When pure chemicals 

 are used, and the box or room used is air-tight, the fumigation is very 

 effective against scale, it being only in exceptional cases that any will 

 escape destruction. It is the part of wisdom, therefore, for every pur- 

 chaser to require of the nursery a positive guarantee that his stock will 

 be fumigated ivith hydrocyanic acid gas — he should secure this promise 

 before he gives his order, and it goes almost without saying that he should 

 deal only with a nurseryman on whose word he can depend. 



Don't Buy Because Stock is Cheap. — We do not say that you should 

 refuse trees because they are cheap ; we simply say that they should not 

 be bought merely because they are cheap. There are some nurserymen 

 who only grow a limited number of trees, or who do not make it a regu- 

 lar business, or who grow in wholesale quantities, who may have most 

 excellent stock at low prices. Remember that we are not advising against 

 these. It is not the cheapness of price in itself which we warn you 

 against, but it is the poor quality of trees that you are likely to get when 

 they are offered at such cheap prices. If you are going to neglect the 

 trees — do not intend to cultivate, fertilize, prune or spray them — then a 

 poor tree is about as good as a first-class one, for you simply take your 

 chances in either case. But if you want good, thrifty, well-shaped, profit- 

 able trees, you must expect to pay the price, and you cannot afford to 

 order trees from the man offering the lowest prices simply on account of 

 the cheapness. If you know that they are first-class trees, then cheapness 

 is not objectionable, but it is cheaper in the end to pay a high price for 

 a first-class tree than to receive diseased trees as a gift. But do not fail 

 to give the trees good attention after they are set. Cultivate, fertilize, 

 prune, and spray them. If this is done intelligently, and good trees are 

 planted in the first place, good results should be secured. Remember, 

 therefore, that it is better to order where you feel sure of getting good 

 stock, even at high prices, than to buy cheap trees at the risk of getting 

 poor stock. 



Buy Young Trees. — There is a growing tendency among fruit growers 

 to buy young stock, only one year from the bud or graft. This allows 

 the grower to shape the tree as he pleases by cutting back or pruning. 

 This plan is safer, also, so far as San Jose Scale is concerned, because 

 the older the stock becomes in the nursery, the more liable to be infested 

 with San Jose Scale. Hence you run less risk if you buy young trees. 



Varieties, etc. — We make no attempt here to discuss the matter of 

 varieties, nor how to set out trees, prune them, etc. Such information 

 can be had by corresponding with the Horticulturist of this Department. 

 Our aim in these suggestions is merely to enable you to get healthy trees 

 which will not be so likely to be infested with serious pests at the time 

 they are planted. 



