Buy in the Fall. 239 



place his order for trees in August or September, 

 if possible, with the express stipulation that thf 

 trees should stand in the nursery rows until the 

 leaves begin to die and fall. In the meantime, the 

 land should be fitted and the holes dug, so that 

 when the trees arrive they can go directly into their 

 places without delay or without the expense of heel- 

 ing them in. Trees are mature enough to dig late 

 in September or early in October in the northern 

 states, depending upon the season, soil and variety. 

 When the tree is fully mature, some of the leaves 

 will still hold upon the vigorous shoots, and these 

 are stripped off; but this stripping does no harm, 

 for the young growth is then mature and it has a 

 thick, strong, brown appearance which is very dif- 

 ferent from the slender, soft and green branches of 

 early -stripped trees. 



It should be said that there seems to be a ten- 

 dency amongst nurserymen to urge fall planting in 

 order to push sales ; and there are man y good 

 planters who consider fall planting hazardous, espe- 

 cially in the north. It is true that unless the con- 

 ditions are right, spring planting is the safer course; 

 and farmers who have many fall crops to harvest 

 will also probably find more time for tree setting 

 in the spring. 



Distance apart. Fruit plants are oftener set too 

 close together than too far apart ; in fact, the latter 

 error scarcely exists. Trees, especially, are wide 

 feeders ; and the best results are obtained when 

 each tree stands far enough from its neighbors to 



