WESTERN TREES. 33 



spent considerable money on Western trees. Those Western 

 trees looked very nice when I set them out, but the trunks 

 would not grow. Sprouts came up from the roots, which I 

 cut off two or three years, to let the original trunk grow, but 

 the trunk did not grow. I have some half-dozen trees, where 

 I cut the trunks off, and let the sprouts grow, and handsomer 

 trees, of two or three years' growth, there are not on the place, 

 — and I have some forty or fifty pear-trees. The question I 

 want to ask is, Why the sprout will grow when the trunk will 

 not grow? I can show you trees, in good bearing condition, 

 the original trunks of which are not much bigger than my 

 thumb, and the sprouts are as big as my wrist. That has 

 been my experience in buying Western trees. I will state, 

 further, that I bought some trees of Mr. Strong, at Brighton, 

 some years ago, and those trees went right along, the sprouts 

 were cut off, and I have the original trees. 



Mr. Gold. That would appear to be a pretty strong argu- 

 ment in favor of purchasing home-grown trees. There is a 

 little dispute between Western nurserymen and our own nur- 

 serymen here in New England, about the comparative value 

 of Western-grown and native-grown trees. There have been 

 a great many cases where the trees seemed to need to be accli- 

 matized before they would grow in our soil, and the case the 

 gentleman names would seem to be one of that kind. The 

 roots were sufficiently vigorous to make a good sprout grow, 

 but the change between their previous location, and the one in 

 which they were planted, was too great for the trunks ; the 

 circulation in the stem was checked, and they became, what 

 we call, "hide-bound." Such trees are often renewed by 

 cutting back vigorously, — cutting back half the top, until you 

 come to a vigorous bud ; or, as this gentleman has found it 

 necessary to do, cutting clean back to the root. This is the 

 only explanation I can give of it, and, perhaps, it is not the 

 true one. 



Mr. Howe. I would say, as far as my experience goes, — 

 and it extends over a period of some ten or fifteen years, — I 

 would advise every gentleman who purchases trees, to pay 

 fifty , seventy-five, or a hundred and fifty per cent, more for 

 trees that have been raised on the soil of New England, rather 

 than invest their money in Western trees. I presume there 



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