50 The Bulletin. 



therefore, for every purchaser to require of the nursery a positive guar- 

 antee that his stock will he fumigated with hydrocyanic acid gas — he 

 should secure this j)romise 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 uot be bought because they are cheap. There are some nursery- 

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

 regular 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, 

 profitable trees, you must expect to pay the price, and you can not 

 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. Culti- 

 vate, 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 grow- 

 ers to buy young stock, only one year from the bud or graft. This al- 

 lows the grower to shape the tree as he pleases by cutting back or prun- 

 ing. 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 Depart- 

 ment. 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. 



Fraudulent Claims,— Xor can we here discuss in detail the many 

 fraudulent claims that have been made from time to time by unreliable 

 persons. Bush strawberries, frost-proof peaches, seedless grapes, core- 

 less apples, quack tree medicines to prevent blight, yellows, and scale, 

 all these are heard of from time to time, and you had better leave them 

 all alone, unless advised by some one whom you know and can depend 

 upon, or by some one whose definite business it is to know and to advise 

 you. 



