HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 363 



our own state, for it has been tried time and again to raise fruit 

 from trees brought from other states, and complete failure has 

 in every case been the result. In selecting trees, take good, 

 healthy two-year-olds. Select medium sized stock, trees having 

 good, bushy tops, and but one body, for trees that crotch near 

 the ground are very apt to split during our heavy wind storms, 

 after which they are worthless. Medium sized trees are more 

 liable to have good roots than large trees of the same age. They 

 will also be more liable to live after being transplanted, and the 

 wood, as a consequence of its slow growth, is more apt to prove 

 ironclad. 



As far as early bearing is concerned we know that a small, 

 thrifty tree with plenty of good roots when planted, will be a 

 good bearing tree long before a large one of the same age, with 

 mutilated roots, has shown the least sign of a fruit bud. 



A great deal has been said upon the subject of when to get 

 trees, some preferring spring while others like the fall the best, 

 but the practice of procuring trees in the fall is becoming ihore 

 and more general as each season demonstrates its wisdom. It is 

 a more favorable time than spring, because of the cooler and 

 less fickle weather, and the lighter pressure of business with 

 nurserymen, the freighting company and the planter. And 

 while our severe climate will not admit of fall xDlanting, the 

 trees, etc. , may be procured in the fall, and thus be on hand at 

 the proper moment in the spring. It is not that the trees were 

 dug in the fall that caused their dying, but often through want 

 of proper care on your own part. Through carelessness, want 

 of time or other causes, young trees when received at the deliv- 

 ery ground are too often left exposed to frost or drying winds. 

 As an inevitable result, the planter loses a large per cent of his 

 trees that with but little trouble might have been saved. 



Do not fail to be at the place of delivery on the day specified 

 by the man from whom you get your stock. Bring plenty of 

 damp straw and old blankets to wrap the roots up in that they 

 maybe kept moist. If the trees are in good condition heal them 

 in immediately, but if somewhat dry it would do no harm to let 

 them remain in a tub of water over night, and also sprinkle the 

 tops. 



They may be healed in b}' digging in clean plowed land, a hole 

 two feet deep and the length of the longest trees. Lay the trees 

 in, the roots a little lower than the tops, and cover with six inches 

 of good, well pulverized clean soil. On this place a board, then 



