37 



and quality to place your order well in advance of the time the trees 

 are likely to be needed — the demand is and will be so great for some 

 years to come that no nurseryman in South Africa will be able to keep 

 stocks on hand. 



A Word of Warning. 



Perhaps a word of warning may be needed to those who think 

 that they ought to grow their own trees and save the nurseryman's 

 profit. Twenty years of South African experience has shown the 

 writer many failures in this line and very few successes. It should be 

 remembered that the nurseryman's business is a specialized one, and 

 does not begin and end by putting a bud into the stock — that is one 

 of the easiest parts of the whole. The very word " nursery " indicates 

 that something young which requires nursing is in contemplation. 

 It is the nursing part of the business which usually proves a stumbling 

 black to the amateur. There is a time to give and a time to withhold 

 water — a time to admit and a time to exclude sunlight ; some buds to 

 be pinched off and others to be encouraged, and a thousand and one 

 trivial details which the trained man deals with from mere force of 

 habit, but which the amateur does not know anything of until the 

 loss of a batch of trees provides him with the experience. 



Removal of Trees eeom XtssEEY. 



No matter whether the trees are home-grown or piir chased from 

 a nursery, there are certain points worth keeping in view in planting 

 them oiit in the orchard form. It must first of all be recognized that 

 a young orange tree is an extremely delicate one to handle, and for 

 that reason the least possible delay should take place between the time 

 of its removal from the nursery and being set out in its permanent 

 place in the orchard. Whilst it is true that with careful packing 

 citrus trees will travel long distances and still grow siiccessfuUy, it is 

 best to make the distance or at any rate the time occupied in the journey 

 as short as possible. All exposure of roots should be avoided, and trees 

 should make the journey with the roots embedded in soil. Balling the 

 tree is a quite satisfactorj' procedure, i.e. covering the roots and the 

 ball of earth A':hich surrounds them with a piece of sacking, and 

 dispatching each tree done up in that way. This is not usually resorted 

 to in South Africa, but it is common practice to send out six or eight 

 trees temporarily established in wooden boxes, and this answers very 

 well. Some nurserymen do not resort to this method, and claim good 

 i-esults from the practice of taking the trees up in bundles and covering 

 them with ordinary sacking. In some instances the roots are puddled, 

 whilst in others again this precaution is not taken. 



THE LEMON. 



It is only, comparatively speaking, within a very short period 

 that the European lemon of commerce has been grown in South Africa. 

 When the writer arrived, some twenty years ago, it may be said that 

 the production of this class of lemon was non-existent. The few trees 

 standing were to be found in the Western Province of the Cape and 

 in Natal. Mr. H. E. V. Pickstone, of nursery fame, was, I believe, the 

 introducer in the former, and the late Mr. Wilkinson, of Maritzburg, 



