33 MAKING HORTICULTURE PAY 



Ask where the buds were cut from and about being 

 true to name. By cutting a tree you can tell 

 whether the heart is affected or not. 



" Ask the nurseryman not to dig too early, and 

 use great care in keeping the trees from the sun 

 and wind. Don't be so rigid as to say the peaches 

 must be 8-16 of an inch caliper, and not less than 5 

 feet high, and the apples must be three-quarter- 

 inch, and not less than 6 feet high, when some 

 varieties will make twice the growth that others 

 will. Too many orchardists insist that trees must 

 be exact in size and shape. You should remember 

 that trees are not molded, but grown, and as varied 

 in sizes as your corn in the field. It is almost im- 

 possible to keep in sizes and varieties. 



" Many nurseries can show you something worth 

 while any month in the year, if you will make the 

 trip. Yet August and September is the best time 

 to visit them. In January and February you find 

 them grafting, March and April planting and ship- 

 ping trees and digging shrubs and plants, May 

 and June cultivating trees and picking strawberries, 

 July to September picking peaches and early apples 

 and budding trees in full force, October and No- 

 vember digging and shipping trees and picking 

 apples and pears, December trenching trees and 

 getting them ready for early spring. The nursery- 

 man has a hard business to handle, and a visit to 

 the nursery will convince you the price of fruit 

 trees is far too low." 



STARTING THE ORCHARD 



The first few years are the most critical of an 

 orchard's existence, because neglect is more likely 

 to occur and the injuries done at this time can, in 



