232 The Principles of Fruit-growing. 



taught that varieties of fruit trees may be just as 

 different and distinct in habit of growth as they are 

 in kind of fruit, and that a first-class tree is a well- 

 grown specimen which has the characteristics of the 

 variety. It seems to me that it is time for nursery- 

 men to begin to enforce this conception upon the 

 public. Why may not a catalogue explain that a 

 tree may be first-class and yet be crooked and 

 gnarly ? Why not place the emphasis upon health 

 and vigor, and not upon mere shape and comeli- 

 ness ? And why may not a nurseryman give a list 

 of those varieties which are comely growers, and 

 another list of those which are wayward growers?"* 



It is generally best to buy first-class trees, 

 those which are of medium size for their age, 

 shapely in body and head, stocky, with straight, 

 clean trunks and abundant roots, which are not 

 stunted, and are free of borers and other injuries, 

 and, in the case of budded trees, those in which 

 the union is very near the ground ; and the tree 

 should show the natural characteristics of the va- 

 riety. In dwarf pears, especially, it is important that 

 the stock, to be first-class, shall be budded very 

 low. It is often thought that large size is of itself 

 a great merit in a nursery tree, but this is an 

 error. Vigor, cleanness, stockiness, firm, hard 

 growth, are much more important than bigness. 

 The toughest and best trees are usually those of 

 medium size. The very small extra expense which 



*The Survival of the Unlike," p. 246. 



