56 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1898. 



whether what they have to sell is the right thing for the buyer. 

 Their ambition is to make sales, and I have sometimes had them 

 come and recommend to me trees and varieties which I know 

 are not worthy of our attention. Of course, it may be said 

 that tastes vary, and some pears which our President and other 

 members of our Society and I might not include in our list 

 would in the difference of taste seem very desirable to other 

 people. But when I speak of varieties that are desirable to 

 grow, I am speaking in the popular sense, those that will appeal 

 to the majority of people. I know that I have at least one or 

 two that I am pleased to grow myself as a sort of individual 

 recreation and pleasure, just as another has some varieties that 

 he loves to grow which everybody does not care to grow and 

 which it would not be profitable for everybody to grow. 



Having selected your trees, the next question is to set them 

 out properly. Now there is quite a difference in the setting out 

 of a tree ; some people cannot set out a tree in April and have 

 it live, while others can set one out in January and make it grow 

 and thrive. Do not dig a small hole as if you were about to 

 set out a fence post. Of course, I am assuming now that your 

 land has been ploughed, and ploughed deeply and thoroughly, 

 and well fertilized. In digging your hole to set up your tree, do 

 not dig a small hole, but dig a hole that is two or three times as 

 large as seems necessary. And I might say here, that my 

 remarks to-day are not so much for the professional fruit raiser 

 as for the amateur who desires to cultivate for his own pleasure 

 and to exhibit. Having dug the hole, take the tree, and setting 

 it in the hole, spread the roots around very carefully. I think 

 it is a good idea to turn what you have taken out of the hole 

 upside down and put that which was at the bottom on top, 

 which with proper care and fertilization will become as good as- 

 that which was formerly on top. There is one other point 

 which I would mention, and that is that the trees may come to 

 you properly headed in and trimmed ; but if they are not, you 

 want to be sure to cut off from the head of the tree as much as, 

 or a little more than, was lost in the roots. Alwa3^s the roots 

 will lose more or less, and it is necessary that a balance should 



