SUMMER MEETING AT BROOKFIELD. 79 



chan and Maiden Blush. Are you planting- every new variety that 

 comes out with the expectation of finding a better keeper than the Ben 

 Davis, or one more pleasant to the taste than the Jonathan ? I will 

 admit that the discovery of such a variety is possible, but not much 

 more so than the possibility of getting a fortune by investing in the 

 Louisiana lottery. 



I would not say anything against the practice of experimenting 

 with and testing new varieties; this I consider very necessary to pro- 

 gressive horticulture, bat too expensive for the average farmer. My 

 advice to him is to plant only such varieties as he knows to be good 

 and will answer the purposes for which he intends them. 



The nurseryman realizes that the spirit of the Athenians prevails 

 among our people, and that tbere is always a demand for something 

 new, and of course he is not slow to supply that demand. On account 

 of this state of things the festive, unrestrained tree-peddler, who will 

 not be bound down by nurserymen's rules and regulations, takes ad- 

 vantage of the ignorant and unwary. On the planting and subsequent 

 care of trees there is, and probably always will be, a difference of opin- 

 ions; yet this need not keep anyone from having a fair knowedge con- 

 cerning these points. 



Every work on fruit trees and every nurseryman's catalogue gives 

 valuable advice to the planter. They advise the planter to set his 

 trees from the same depth they stood in the nursery row to three 

 inches deeper; yet we meet with men, some of them old and gray- 

 headed, who do not know any better than to plant their trees from six 

 to twelve inches deeper than they stood in the nursery row. This 

 would not be so bad in a deep, sandy soil, but in our heavy soil, and 

 still heavier and more compact subsoil, it is death to the trees. 



Some planters seem to think a great deal of virtue resides in the 

 taproot of the apple tree, and that a tree that did not grow on a whole 

 root is not suitable for planting in the orchard. I will not say whether 

 or not the apple tree needs a tap-root, but if it is necessary, I would 

 much prefer that the tree grow its tap-root after transplanting. 



Imagine the task a man would have, digging three feet below the 

 surface, down into the "hard-pan," that his trees might be planted with 

 tap-roots. It is an erroneous idea that the apple tree will not grow a 

 taproot unless grafted on a whole root. I have seen tap-roots three 

 feet long on three-year-old trees, grafted on sections of roots. There 

 seems to be no necessity then for using whole roots for each graft, as 

 far as the tap-root is concerned. 



Let us not forget the oft-repeated suggestion, to pack the fine sur- 

 face dirt well about the roots, and as we complete the tilling up, leave 



