18 THE SUBURBANITE'S HANDBOOK 



for all the training of the future tree, as bush, Cordon, Pyramid, 

 Goblet, Palmette, Standard, etc. They consist of a root and stem 

 with the graft or bud inserted, and may be trimmed back to an inch 

 or two of the graft, and are in the best condition for shipping long 

 distances, at the some time the price, duty and cost of importing 

 are at the lowest figure. With these " maidens" the purchaser has 

 entire control of the future form he wishes his little tree to have. 

 Should he not purchase his tree as a "maiden," then the nursery 

 man proceeds to train it to suit himself and sells it the next season 

 as a trained two-year old at an advanced price. It is really a one- 

 year from the bud and may or may not have developed one or more 

 fruit buds. Next season it will develop more fruit spurs, or fruit 

 buds, and the training has been carried on still farther in the re- 

 quired direction, and it is now classed as a bearing tree and sold at 

 a still higher price. After this its cost and value increase year by 

 year in accordance with its size and number of fruit spurs and from 

 training. 



The American duty on "nursery stock" is 25 per cent ad val- 

 orem, in addition to which it must be remembered there is an "entry 

 fee" charged by the custom house of $2 for each invoice, as well 

 as $1 charge for "permit." It will therefore be seen that it would 

 be inadvisable for the suburbanite to send to Europe for a small lot 

 of these trees. For instance, say he wished to procure $5 worth of 

 trees; he would be required to pay in addition $1.25 duty, $2 entry 

 and $1 per mit ; that would be $4.25 in addition to the simple price of 

 the trees, in addition to which there would be freight to New York, 

 insurance and forwarding and overland transportation charges. Nor 

 could he avail himself of the intervention of parcels post service, as 

 the goods would require to be examined at the customs house at the 

 first porty of entry reached in the United States ; and however care- 

 fully packed originally by the nurseryman, would, under the careless 

 repacking by the customs house people and the further 3,500 miles 

 overland journey by railway, run a very strong risk of being utterly 

 ruined in transit. Some of the stock, however, used for dwarfing 

 if under 3 years old comes at a somewhat lower rate of duty under 

 the class of "seedlings" and "cuttings" which is a specific duty of 

 $1 per 1,000 and 15 per cent ad valorem, together with the $3 

 entry and permit charges and the trees in this class would require 



