A YOUNG TOP-WORKED ORCHARD. 



15 



Virginia crab trees growing on their own grounds. I took all the 

 good trees they had. 



At tree-digging time in the fall of 1911 I went into the nur- 

 series and made my selection personally. I did not pick one in 

 ten of the trees which I found in the nursery. There is consider- 

 able difference in the size of trees of the same age as they appear 

 in the nursery row. There is a reason for this. Trees differ in 

 individual vitality the 

 same as human beings 

 do. I wanted the most 

 vigorous trees and was 

 willing to pay for them. 

 The trees I paid the most 

 for proved the cheapest 

 in the end. 



When time would per- 

 mit I stayed to see my 

 trees dug and placed in 

 the storage cellar, with 

 my label on every tree. 

 This is the only right 

 way to do. The care 

 with which a tree is dug 

 from the nursery row 

 has much to do with its 

 subsequent thriftiness. 

 I have since experimented by buying four and five year old trees, 

 and proved that this can be safely done if the trees are selected 

 and the digging supervised. 



By selecting my own trees, I was able to get trees with a 

 proper branch system for top- working. By supervising the dig- 

 ging, I was able to prevent unnecessary mutilation of the root 

 system. I was also able to see whether the trees were infected 

 with root gall and to reject those that were. Most of my trees 

 were dug from the nursery by a crew with spades. This is 

 better than a tree digger if the men are carefully watched. 

 Otherwise there is not much difference. 



Now I am thoroughly familiar with the difference of opinion 

 about root gall. Consider all the arguments on both sides, and 

 this fact remains: Root gall is an infectious bacterial disease. 

 A tree may have vitality enough to overcome the disease after 

 having contracted it, but the man who plants an infected tree 



Tree No. 344. Hibernal, set spring, 1915, budded to 

 Wealthy August, 1915. Photo taken July, 1916. 



