88 



The stem, or trunk of a healthy nursery tree will 

 usually be twice the diameter near the ground that 

 it will be three feet above, and decrease with a regular 

 taper towards the top. Stems that are of the same 

 size at the collar, and three, or as sometimes happens, 

 even five feet above it, have been forced up in their 

 growth by crowding in the rows, or by injudicious 

 pruning. The height of trees should be a secondary 

 object compared to other qualities. The bark should 

 be clean, of a lustrous aj^pearance, and free from 

 ungainly scars from wounds made by the pruning 

 knife. 



]^[urserymen are often forced, by the popular prefer- 

 ence for tall trees, to prune them contrary to their 

 judgment, so as to induce growth in that form : the 

 lower part of the tree, deprived of its portion of the 

 foliage, remains undeveloped, while the top is increas- 

 ing at its expense. 



The purchaser should ascertain, if possible, how old 

 the trees are, and how long they have stood in the 

 nursery rows without being lifted, or root-pruned; 

 for a tree of any kind, and especially a pear tree, 

 will not be well provided with fibrous roots within 

 the circle dug in taking it up, after standing for three 

 or four years, without root-pruning or transplanting ; 

 nor will a pear tree form these fibrous roots, on which 

 depend its vitality and-fruitfulness, unless the stock, 

 on which it was budded, has been properly treated 

 for their formation. It is the practice in some of the 

 French nurseries to cut off the tap-root of pear seed- 

 lings when they are three or four inches high, to cause 

 the growth of fibrous roots — just as we pinch off the 



