126 THE NURSERY. 



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under different management ; and, in such a case, the year- 

 lings are worth twice as much as the others. A very good 

 plan is to thin out all the weakest plants when about four 

 or five inches high, leaving only those of vigorous habit 

 and large foliage. The prevailing error in growing apple 

 seedlings, and, I may add, all seedlings, is that of having 

 them too close together usually three or four times as 

 many on the ground as there should be. Give them 

 plenty of room, good soil, and clean culture, and you will 

 have sfood stocks. 



The Doucin is a distinct species of apple. The tree is 

 of medium size, bears small, sweet fruit, and reproduces 

 itself from seed. It is used for stocks for apple trees of 

 medium size, pyramids, or dwarf standards for gardens. 

 It is propagated almost exclusively from layers. (See fig. 

 63.) The plants to be propagated from are planted in a 

 rich, deep, friable soil, and cut back to within four to six 

 inches of the collar; the buds, on the part below the cut, 

 will, during the next season, produce strong shoots ; the 

 following spring the earth is drawn up around each plant 

 in the form of a mound, so that the whole of the stem and 

 the base of all the shoots will be covered at least three 

 inches deep ; during that season, all the shoots will pro- 

 duce roots, and should be separated from the mother 

 plant, or stool, as such plants are termed, in the fall. If 

 left on until spring, the frost would be likely to injure them. 

 The stools are then dressed, the soil around them is spaded 

 up and enriched with well-decayed manure ; and the fol- 

 lowing season another crop of shoots is produced, much 

 more numerous than the first, to be treated in the same 

 way. Every year these stool plants increase in size and 

 in the quantity of their productions, if well treated. 

 Another course, but not so good, is frequently pursued 

 when stocks are scarce. The shoots are layered by bend- 

 ing down, as described in layering, the first season of their 

 growth in July, and may be sufficiently rooted in the fall 



