Age of Plants for Setting. 233 



one incurs in buying the best trees is a good in- 

 vestment. In an acre of apple trees, the difference 

 in cost of first-class over second-class trees will 

 not be more than a dollar or two, but the differ- 

 ence in results is often great. 



The age at which plants should be bought must 

 be governed by circumstances and by variety. There 

 is a general tendency to buy trees too old rather 

 than too young. When varieties are new and 

 scarce, it may be economy to buy young stock. 

 Some of the freer -growing apples and pears are 

 large enough when two years old, if grown from 

 buds ; but these fruits are usually set at three 

 years from the bud or graft. Dwarf pears may be 

 set at two or three years, preferably at the former 

 age. Quinces are set at two and three years. 

 Peaches are set at one year from the bud. Strawber- 

 ries are set only from new plants (that is, those which 

 have not borne) ; gooseberries and currants prefera- 

 bly from two-year stock, and raspberries and black- 

 berries from stock not more than one season old. 



Dwarfs vs. standards. Fruit-growers are always 

 asking whether standard or. dwarf trees are the 

 better to plant, but the question is a personal 

 one, and cannot be answered for another any more 

 than the question can as to whether peaches are 

 more desirable than plums. Dwarf apples and 

 dwarf pears are of a different type of fruit-grow- 

 ing from the standards, and the intending grower 

 must weigh the evidence for and against as best 

 he can. As a general thing, the standards are the 



