OLD PRIMITIVE ORCHARDS. 73 



more. But for many years, in fact generations, compelled, 

 as they were, to battle with the elements and Indians, and 

 clear forests, little attention could have been paid to fruit- 

 growing, except in a small way for individual use, and every 

 one doubtless propagated for himself, by the old and well- 

 known method of root-grafting, or from seed, where the trees 

 were to stand. It is a fair presumption, indeed, that anything 

 like a commercial nursery was then unknown, friends and 

 neighbors performing such kindly offices as budding and graft- 

 ing for each other without pay. This continued, doubtless, 

 for many generations. In fact, up to the beginning of the 

 present century there were practically no nurseries at all, and 

 the institutions of this description that are so common now 

 all over the country really date back scarcely more than fifty 

 or seventy-five years. But as more and more attention was 

 given to fruit culture, naturally people here and there would 

 grow trees for sale, and many seasons would doubtless have 

 an over-supply. Not wishing to lose them, these would be 

 transplanted once or more, to check growth and keep them 

 from getting too large, and intending purchasers, seeing such 

 big, fine stock, in their desire and haste for immediate bear- 

 ing, and encouraged by the honest but mistaken nurseryman, 

 would naturally purchase these large trees, in preference to 

 the small ones ; and, indeed, if treated right, a two or three- 

 year-old tree, or even one five or six years old is equally as 

 good, and will fruit sooner than a younger one. But the 

 trouble was, then as now, that right treatment was not under- 

 stood, and in order to preserve a large part of the handsome 

 tops, which the customers of course desired, the nurseryman 

 naturally advised retaining as much as possible of the long 

 and fibrous roots, the result of transplanting once or more. 

 And thus it gradually came about, that there grew up an aris- 

 tocracy of root, and when dug and graded in the fall, the 

 value and price of the stock was largely determined, just 

 as it is now, by the size and quantity of the roots. I 

 doubt, indeed, whether there is to-day (February 8, 1896) a 

 nurseryman in the whole country who has not numbers of 

 fine trees of all varieties that by accident have been dug 



