92 SELECTING, TLANTING, AND CULTIVA'nON. 



will fit them for transplanting at an advanced stage 

 of growth. In this case, if at the end of two or three 

 years they are removed at the proper season, and with 

 care, they will suffer scarcely any check. By pursu- 

 ing this plan they receive better care, grow faster, 

 and are not liable to damage ; and as only good trees 

 will in this case be set in the fruit grounds, none of 

 those unseemly breaks in the rows, caused by the 

 death or injury of a tree, need occur. 



Where, however, older trees, at least once trans- 

 planted, can not be obtained, and it is desirable to 

 set out the orchard at once, stout two-^^ear-old trees 

 are decidedly preferable. Such trees have not stood 

 sufficiently long to send their roots beyond a limit, 

 whence they can be removed ; and with careful digging, 

 removal, and planting, the purchaser need not fear 

 a loss of more than two per cent. Quince-rooted 

 trees can be removed at any age. When over ten 

 years old, and twelve to fifteen feet high, they can be 

 transplanted with as much safety as pear trees, grown 

 on pear roots, at two years of age. Captain Ki chard- 

 son, of Brooklyn, who sailed the " Duchess d'Orleans," 

 a Havre packet, for many years, was induced by a 

 French gentleman at that port to bring home in his 

 vessel some large pear trees, grown on quince roots. 



These trees were nearly twenty feet high, with a 

 main stem six or eight inches thick at the base, 

 branched close to the ground, and each as perfectly 

 conical as a ISTorway Spruce. They had been in bear- 

 ing in France for nearly twenty years ; and are now, 

 after- thirteen years of growth in a new soil, beautiful 

 objects in shape and foliage ; and what is more, pro- 



