PROPAGATING APPLE-TREES. 53 



may not be checked in their future development. Hence 

 one will always be more certain of having hardy and thrifty 

 trees when they are obtained from a nursery where the 

 land is in rather a poor state of fertility than from a nurs- 

 ery where the soil is rich. But, after all, the correct way 

 is to plant the seeds where the trees are to grow. By 

 adopting the plan herewith recommended, a person can 

 produce a fruitful orchard much sooner than by purchasing 

 his trees. 



Practical Operations. In 1843 we received the catalogue 

 of a nurseryman who was recommended to be " thoroughly 

 reliable as to the genuineness of every tree that was order- 

 ed from his nursery." His apple-trees and pear-trees were 

 represented in his catalogue as being very large and fine 

 "four to five feet high" hardy and thrifty, and would 

 be shipped for fifty to seventy-five cents each. As we de- 

 sired to start an orchard, we forwarded the money, and 

 gave an order for the trees early in the spring. After the 

 season for planting trees had so far advanced that we had 

 thought it quite too late for transplanting, our trees ar- 

 rived. But, instead of being thrifty and large, suitable for 

 transplanting, some of them, for which we sent seventy-five 

 cents each, were only one year old, and some had only been 

 budded the previous season. They had been exposed to 

 the air for so long a time, that it was only by the best care 

 that life was preserved, without one inch of growth, till the 

 next season. Many of our neighbors were treated in the 

 same manner by the same nurseryman. And yet we knew 

 him for more than twenty years, up to the day of his death, 

 as " a reliable nurseryman !" 



Prepared Bandages for Budding and Grafting. Cut cot- 

 ton cloth, such as sheeting, into narrow strips, say half an 

 inch wide, and sew the ends smoothly together in the same 

 manner as carpet-rags are prepared. Then wind the long 



