SELECTING THE TREES 23 



tain good trees to start their orchard, unless 

 they are planting the place in the hope of sell- 

 ing it quickly. (I once saw a property that had 

 recently changed hands. A beautiful hedge of 

 Norway Spruce along one side of the driveway, 

 died under circumstances that seemed to de- 

 mand the attention of the tree coroner, — mean- 

 ing me. An inspection showed that the 

 beautiful hedge consisted of a local dealer's 

 leftover stock of Christmas trees, each with its 

 supporting base still neatly nailed to the trunk 

 and covered with enough earth to hold it 

 upright.) 



In order that the buyer be able to judge 

 something of the quality of the tree he pur- 

 chases, he should first know something of the 

 methods by which that tree has been produced, 

 — just as the good mechanic should know how 

 tools are made. 



Apple trees are not grown in the nursery 

 from seeds. Some planters seem to think that 

 the production of an apple tree is very much 

 like the production of a tomato plant — simply 

 a question of planting seeds of a certain vari- 

 ety and later securing plants that bear fruit 

 more or less closely resembling the parent fruit. 



If that were the method employed fruit trees 

 would not be so scarce on the market as they 

 are to-day, but unfortunately the process is 

 somewhat more complicated. 



