FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 137 



prove to be what they are said to be, or what you buy. In 

 planting at different times and at different places a great 

 number of trees. I must confess I have got wholly out of the 

 idea of small trees, and personally I have no use for a small 

 tree ; I want a good strong tree in any orchard that I plant. 

 There is another thing that comes on top of this. Small 

 trees always mean lower grades out of the same lot. If a 

 nurseryman takes an order for a hundred or a thousand peach 

 trees, he groups them under certain sizes and prices, and you 

 get them in that way, and it is practically the same in the 

 apple tree, unless you order a one-year-old tree or a two-year- 

 old tree, you get simply weaker and poorer trees right out of 

 the same lot. From the growing of these trees a good many 

 times and in different ways, I am certainly satisfied that the 

 stronger tree pays the best. Another thing that purchasers 

 don't consider half so much as they should is the variation in 

 the growth of trees. No two varieties of apple trees grow 

 just alike, and if anv of you will come up to our college, we 

 will show you the dift"erence in shape of two trees of a certain 

 age, and, you would hardly believe it, they are just as differ- 

 ent as you can imagine. Now all trees, as I say, do not grow 

 alike, and, as I mentioned a moment ago, some are much 

 easier for the nurserymen to grow, and this point is not con- 

 sidered by the grower half as much as it should be. If a 

 man sends an order for a certain variety, insisting that they 

 shall be straight and large, he will get them very often, or the 

 order will be refused ; but if he gets them, the chances are 

 that he will be surprised at the similarity of the fruit when 

 they come to bear. I don't understand why the nurserymen 

 don't make a little difference in their charges for a straight 

 tree. It costs easily twice as much to grow some varieties as 

 it does others. I have always found it difficult to get a Bosc 

 pear from the nurserymen. Send them an order for fifty 

 Bosc trees alone and you won't get them, but if you send them 

 an order for 150 trees of different varieties, including some 

 Bosc, you will get them. They will not say to you, we will 

 give you the Bosc pear for so much more additional, but I 

 do know they refuse to sell them alone. It is a very difficult 

 and mean tree to grow, but if they would price these things a 



