Buy in the Fail. 239 
place his order for trees in August or September, 
if possible, with the express stipulation that the 
trees should stand in the nursery rows until the 
leaves begin to die and fall. In the meantime, the 
land should be fitted and the holes dug, so that 
when the trees arrive they can go directly into their 
places without delay or without the expense of heel- 
ing them in. Trees are mature enough to dig late 
in September or early in October in the northern 
states, depending upon the season, soil and variety. 
When the tree is fully mature, some of the leaves 
will still hold upon the vigorous shoots, and these 
are stripped off; but this stripping does no harm, 
for the young growth is then mature and it.has a 
thick, strong, brown appearance which is very dif- 
ferent from the slender, soft and green branches of 
early-stripped trees. 
It should be said that there seems to be a ten- 
deney amongst nurserymen to urge fall planting in 
order to push sales; and there are many good 
planters who consider fall planting hazardous, espe- 
cially in the north. It is true that unless the con- 
ditions- are right, spring planting is the safer course; 
and farmers who have many fall crops to harvest 
will also probably find more time for tree setting 
in the spring. 
Distance apart.—Fruit plants are oftener set too 
close together than too far apart; in fact, the latter 
error scarcely exists. Trees, especially, are wide 
feeders; and the best results are obtained when 
each tree stands far enough from its neighbors to 
