THK NURSERY. 21 



in the south probably I should adopt the so-called 

 whole root system for southern orchards, as these 

 propagators claim that such trees give better satis- 

 faction there, but the proof is all wanting that such 

 trees do better in the north, or give better satis- 

 faction where thoroughly and intelligently tried. 

 My own opinion, based upon several experiments is 

 that such trees introduced into the North would be 

 unsafe unless when replanted they were set very 

 much deeper than grown in the nursery, even then 

 the proof is all wanting to maintain the proposi- 

 tion that such trees and only such, are natural, and 

 make better or longer lived trees in the north than 

 those propagated under our northern system. The 

 fact that trees propagated in a certain manner lived 

 longer in Massachusetts or Michigan than those 

 differently propagated in Dakota, is not proof of 

 anything, but is only an incident, and may be 

 explained by a dozen different conditions as well as 

 this one. 



When we carefully investigate this claim of 

 superiority for the "whole root" system, and then 

 learn that no claim is made that the whole root is 

 really used, and only a very small proportion of it, 

 there will be a suggestion of the good faith of the 

 advocates. Why not call it by its right name 

 which would be crown graft or collar graft ? 



Prof. Burrill in speaking of this point in the seed- 

 ling that is known as the collar says: "There is a 

 name often heard in discussions upon our topics 

 which calls for a moment's notice: What is the 



