PLANTS AND STOCK. 1 1 1 



that will not be productive chiefly of profanity when coming 

 into fruit. This scrutiny of propagating beds is a depart- 

 ment that I shall never delegate to any one else. 



It is not thrift to save in the first cost of plants, if thereby 

 the risk of obtaining poor, mixed varieties is increased. I 

 do not care to save five dollars to-day and lose fifty by the 

 operation within a year. A gentleman wrote to me, " I 

 have been outrageously cheated in buying plants." On the 

 same page he asked me to furnish stock at rates as absurdly 

 low as those of the man v/ho cheated him. If one insists on 

 having an article at far less than the cost of production, it is 

 not strange that he finds some who will " cheat him outra- 

 geously." I find it by far the cheapest in the long run to 

 go to the most trustworthy sources, and pay the grower a 

 price which enables him to give me just what I want. 



When plants are both fine and genuine they can still be 

 spoiled, or, at least, injured in transit from the ground where 

 they grew. Dig so as to save all the roots, shake these 

 clean of earth, straighten them out, and tie the plants into 

 bundles of fifty. Pack in boxes, with the roots down in 

 moss and the tops exposed to the air. Do not press them in 

 too tightly or make them too wet, or else the plants become 

 heated, — a process which speedily robs them of all vitality. 

 In cool seasons, and when the distance is not too great, 

 plants can be shipped in barrels thickly perforated with 

 holes. The tops should be toward the sides and the roots 

 in the centre, do\vn through which there should be a circu- 

 lation of air. In every case, envelop the roots in damp 

 moss or leaves, — damp, but not wet. Plants can be sent 

 by mail at the rate of one cent per ounce, and those ob- 

 tained in this way rarely fail in doing well. 



This fact should be carefully kept in mind by those resid- 

 ing long distances from express offices, or tlie points from 



