CERTAIN ELEMENTS IN NURSERY PRACTICE 179 



ing of nursery lands, as other agricultural lands are supple- 

 mented, and not to rely on the effect of a single ingredient to 

 meet a present difficulty. This is the rational procedure. 

 Undoubtedly nursery lands will respond to good rotations, 

 careful working, and thoughtful fertilizer management as readily 

 as other areas. The nursery practice has been too much like 

 a skinning process. Some nurserymen now feed live-stock 

 and use the manure in preparing and supplementing nursery 

 lands. 



Another difficulty in using nursery lands in succession is 

 the danger from soil diseases. The nurseryman must be 

 careful not to infect his land. Rotation seems yet to be the 

 only remedy, if trouble arises. 



Grades of trees 



Common opinion demands that a tree, to be first-class, 

 must be perfectly straight and comely. This arbitrary stand- 

 ard is but the expression of the general demand for large and 

 good-looking trees. Yet there are some varieties of fruit-trees 

 that cannot be made to grow in a comely shape, and there is 

 always a tendency to discontinue growing them, notwith- 

 standing the fact that they may possess great intrinsic merit. 

 All this is to be deplored. The requirements of a first-class 

 tree should be that the specimen is vigorous, free from disease 

 or blemishes and that it possess the characteristics of the 

 variety. This allows a crooked tree to be first-class if it is a 

 Greening or Red Canada apple, because it is the nature of these 

 varieties to grow crooked. Wayward and often scraggly 

 growers among apples are Williams Early Red, Wealthy, Olden- 

 burg, Wagner, and others. A crooked or wayward grower is 

 not necessarily a weak tree. It is advisable to top- work weak- 

 growing varieties on strong-growing and straight-growing ones. 

 (See pages 167-169.) 



