72 AMERICAN POMOLOGY. 



sowing must begin, and should be done as quickly as pos- 

 sible ; the covering is to be slight, and the earth should 

 be friable and not disposed to bake. The depth at which 

 the apple seed is to be covered will depend upon the pres- 

 ent and prospective state of the weather, lighter if moist, 

 heavier if dry, for a continued drouth might be f-ital to 

 sprouted seed, if it were planted too near the surface ; but 

 when the weather is not dry, it is advised that the 

 shallower the seed is sown, the better. The objection has 

 been made to sprouting, that if the process have advanced 

 too far, the seedlings will be apt to have a crook at or 

 near the collar, instead of the straight fusiform appear- 

 ance they should possess when presented to the grafter. 

 These seedlings furnish the stocks upon which to work 

 the finer varieties of the apple. They are taken up in the 

 autumn with their long clean roots, which are often longer 

 than their tops, the leaves are stripped off, and they are 

 assorted ; the larger are packed away in earth or saw-dust 

 in the grafting department, or heeled-in out of doors, and 

 covered in such a way as to be accessible at any time they 

 may be needed during the winter. The smaller stocks 

 are heeled-in for spring planting in nursery rows for bud- 

 ding, or they may be left in the original rows for another 

 year's growth as seedlings. If the plants have been well 

 grown and not too thick, so that the majority are of suffi- 

 cient size, it will be better to take them all up at once and 

 assort them as just indicated, otherwise the largest only 

 may be drawn separately when the ground is soft with 

 autumnal rains, leaving the smaller seedlings for another 

 year's growth. In assorting and selling the stocks, nurs- 

 erymen make about three classes. The very largest, as 



