250 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



obliged to dig and burn them. These trees are bought by un- 

 principled scoundrels, and labeled to suit the wants of customers. 

 Then armed with a book of colored plates and an oiled tongue, 

 the purchaser starts out to gull the farmers. Often the agents 

 employed to canvass are honest and ignorant of the fraud, but 

 that does not help the farmer. It seems strange that so many 

 intelligent farmers who are shrewd enough in all ordinary business 

 transactions should allow themselves to be swindled by tree agents. 



Go to the nursery and select your own trees. I presume 

 there are few farmers but can find a good reliable nursery within 

 from twenty to fifty miles, and it were better to be at the 

 expense of a journey for ten dollars' worth of trees than to find 

 after years of care and waiting that you have some worthless 

 variety. Often several neighbors can unite and send one of 

 their number to the nursery, and thus reduce the expense. 



Plant Young Trees. I give this advice after more 

 than twenty-five years' experience in tree-planting, during which 

 time I have set and fruited more than one thousand trees. 

 Peach, pear, cherry, plum, and quince, I would always set in 

 the orchard at one year old, and apples at two. I can give a 

 number of valid reasons for this advice. 



1st. The trees will cost less at the nursery, and can be 

 packed and transported cheaper, and it will be less work 

 to plant them. 



2d. They will be surer to grow, as they will be less dis- 

 turbed by transplanting, and will have better roots in proportion 

 to their tops than if older. 



3d. They will become established sooner and adapted to the 

 soil in which they are to grow if transplanted young, and can 

 be more easily brought to the shape the owner desires. 



4th. In a few years from setting they will be as large, and 

 will come into bearing as soon or sooner than the larger and 

 more expensive trees. 



In planting the cherry orchard before referred to I tested 

 the relative value of large and small trees. One row was set 

 with large trees six feet high, which were retailing at forty 

 cents each, and the remainder of the orchard from a lot of 



