498 TwBNTY-FiEST Biennial, BiEPOET 



Care. 



In the best orchards of the Pacific Northwest no detail of care is 

 neglected from the time the tree is first purchased from the nursery 

 until the fruit from the mature orchard is packed and delivered at 

 the association warehouse. Few orchardists now buy their nursery 

 stock from the itinerant tree peddler. If it is purchased from a 

 traveling agent at all, the buyer is very careful to ascertain the 

 reputation of the nursery represented. Where the planting is large 

 enough to justify it, the nursery is usually visited and the stock in- 

 spected while growing. 



A certain block or row can then be selected and all the trees 

 of the desired grade reserved and shipped from that particular 

 section of the nursery. This is much the better plan. The pur- 

 chaser can then see exactly what he is getting, and if he is there, 

 as he should be, at the time the order is filled and the stock packed, 

 he is sure there will be no substitution. 



When I had charge of large plantings in the northwest, I made 

 it a rule to visit the principal nurseries in the late summer or early 

 fall and inspect the stock while still standing in the nursery row. 

 r.Iost of the leading nurseries of the northwest were inspected before 

 ihe order was placed. Often we would buy as many as 80,000 trees 

 during one season. 



At digging time I would again visit the nursery and inspect the 

 stock as it was packed. We have a very rigid law in the western 

 states for nursery inspection, so far as insects and diseases are con- 

 cerned. However, the inspector has nothing whatever to say about 

 the grading as to size or any possible substitution of varieties. He 

 doesn't have authority to reject a broken tree or even one with no 

 roots. His duty is simply to look out for the spread of any injurious 

 pests or disease, and it is up to the purchaser to see that he gets what 

 he orders. No doubt nurserymen are as reliable as any other busi- 

 ness men. Yet in purchasing any goods, I find I get better service 

 where I look out for my own interests personally. 



Many growers now do not depend on the nursery for their 

 stock but propagate it themselves. There is also a lot of interest 

 being taken in pedigreed trees. One development company that is 

 selling land in small tracts and developing the orchard to the bear- 

 ing age, has its own nursery and plants only pedigreed trees. This 

 is stock propagated from trees that are known to have produced 

 large crops of superior fruit over a long term of years. 



You, perhaps, have often noticed that in an orchard there will 

 be a few trees very much superior to the rest. While all the orchard 

 may receive the same care, there will be trees that will bear regu- 

 larly and heavily for no apparent reason. There is just as much 

 difference between these and the rest of the orchard as there is be- 

 tween a pure bred and a scrub animal. Does it not stand to reason 



