242 PLAIN AND PLEASANT TALK 



In the first place, the time, and labor, and patience re- 

 quired for a successful nursery business is much greater 

 than any one suspects beforehand. If a man has a large 

 capital he may begin sales at once upon a purchased stock. 

 But if one is to prepare his own stock for market, and this 

 must be the case with by far the greater number of western 

 nurserymen, it will require several years of expensive labor 

 before he can realize anything. Nor even then will he be 

 apt to receive profits which will at all meet his expectations. 

 During these years of preparation on what is he to live? 

 If he has means, very well ; but let no man suppose that he 

 can get along, especially with a family on his hands, during 

 the early years of his nursery, if he has nothing else to de- 

 pend upon. The mere physical labor of keeping a nursery 

 in proper order is such as to make it no sinecure. 



But all this is a less consideration than the special skill 

 and vigilant care required to conduct a nursery in an hon- 

 orable manner. Nowhere do mistakes occur more easily, 

 and nowhere are they more provoking, both to the buyer 

 and seller. It is rare that assistants can be had upon 

 whom reliance can be placed. There are men enough to 

 plow, and grub, and clean ; but to select buds and grafts, 

 to work the various kinds, and plant them safely by them- 

 selves, this, usually, must be done by the proprietor. Where 

 a nursery is carried on by assistants, it makes almost no dif- 

 ference how much care is used, mistakes will abound. 



The extent to which an error goes is not unworthy of a 

 moment's attention. We purchased of a very highly re- 

 spectable nurseryman, the Royal George peach. The first 

 season many buds were distributed from it. An expert 

 nurseryman in the vicinity, among others, got of it. The 

 credit of the original proprietor of the tree was such that 

 it was thought safe to propagate at once, and thousands of 

 trees were worked with these buds ; from him, nurserymen 

 from neighboring counties procured scions, and now the 

 Royal George, which has proved to be no Royal George at 



