146 FRITZ BAHR'S COMMERCIAL FLORICULTURE 



badly handicapped. I don't mean that he should make an attempt to 

 grow on everything that is needed and so get away from buying. I 

 know it would be folly to attempt this. For I am sure that the 

 more you grow on, the more you will sell and the more you will 

 buy from others. But if you do landscape work and have to depend 

 year in and year out on stock that has to be shipped great distances 

 in wooden boxes, you are working at a great disadvantage. 



For a descriptive list of twelve desirable conifers for the florist 

 to grow on, see Chapter VII, page 203. 



RAISING FRUIT TREES AND WHAT IT OFFERS 



Retail growers located in the smaller towns and in sections where fruit 



trees can be grown for retailing, no matter how limited the varieties, 



can make the selling of such stock a profitable side line. 



IF THERE is anyone who should encourage the planting of fruit 

 trees, such as Apples, Pears, Cherries, Plums, and Peaches, 

 it is the local florist or florists of a town. I realize that in order to 

 make such trees really pay, expert care and attention must be given, 

 the same as with anything else. But there are many hundreds of 

 thousands of such trees all over the land on small home grounds, 

 which are giving pleasure and delight to the owners and there is 

 room for millions more to be planted. 



Let us take, for example, the so-called common Keifer Pear. 

 This variety will grow where other better ones cannot be grown or 

 rather won't amount to much. But see what a beautiful tree it 

 will develop into in a short time with its upright habit, covered all 

 Summer long with deep green glossy foliage, hardly ever infested 

 with insect pests, loaded almost every Spring with thousands of 

 flowers and bearing an abundance of fruit which cannot be beat for 

 preserving even if not as palatable as other varieties for eating! 

 Why cannot we recommend such material to a customer who is in 

 want of trees? When once established, it will get along and thrive 

 with almost no care. 



"More Fruit Trees for the Home Grounds" should be the 

 motto of every retail grower. Encourage it, push it; plant some 

 trees on your own grounds. It takes many years to grow a good 

 sized Apple tree, but so it does to grow a Maple or an Elm, so why 

 not have all three ? What better shade tree could you wish than an 

 Apple? And often where Apples won't do, Crabs will. Where is 

 the family that doesn't use Crab apples in Fall for putting up? 

 Let the nurseryman advertise and canvass your town from one 

 end to the other; so much more will be planted for the good of 

 everybody, and there will still be plenty of chance for you to sell 

 some. So far, we have only begun planting fruit trees in the home 

 grounds, and in the great majority of cases you don't see them. 



