PROPAGATING APPLE- TREES. 47 



eral years' growth and value of their trees. Our own prac- 

 tice always has been to bud young stocks in August or Sep- 

 tember. Then, if the buds failed, the stocks were grafted 

 the next spring close to the ground. 



Management of Apple-trees in Nurseries. The following 

 constitutes the practice of many nurserymen : They collect 

 apple-roots about as large as goose-quills, keep them in 

 sand in a cellar, cut them in pieces about four inches long, 

 graft each piece, during the winter, within doors, pack the 

 grafted stocks in bundles, and plant them out in rows in 

 the spring where a nursery is to be formed. Some plant 

 them thus : Thrust a spade into the soil, so as to have the 

 spade extend equally on both sides of the mark for the 

 row ; now push the spade from you, and then withdraw it. 

 This operation will leave a wedge-shaped hole ten inches 

 deep, seven long, and about two broad. It is necessary to 

 have another man to put in the grafts ; he should put in 

 two, each two inches outside of the mark left as a guide, 

 holding them till the first or spade-man repeats the opera- 

 tion with the spade, which will be three to four inches 

 from the edge of the first hole. In making the second, the 

 soil is pressed against the grafts in the first ; and thus the 

 operation not only makes the new hole, but closes the last ; 

 and while the spade is being withdrawn, the second man 

 gets the grafts for the new hole. There is no time lost 

 from one operator waiting for the other. Set only half an 

 inch above ground. The young trees are then cultivated 

 in the same manner as a crop of carrots. All weeds are 

 kept down, and the ground is kept mellow and loose. Af- 

 ter they have grown an inch or two they are sprouted, 

 which consists in taking all the sprouts off but one, the 

 best. In the fall they should all be taken up and stored in 

 the root-cellar ; and during the winter, trim the roots and 

 top, and cut the top to within an inch of where it started ; 



