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THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



February, 1909 



A Visit tO a FamOUS Nursery — By Rogers Dickinson, 



HAD always thought of a nursery as 

 a great field in which rows upon rows 

 of uninteresting miniature trees were 

 standing like regiments of tin soldiers 

 — a sort of open where a house of grow- 

 ing things stuck up in the bare ground 

 as crockery is stood on counters in a 

 great china shop. 



Instead, on the gentle hills overlook- 

 ing the lovely winding Fox River, 

 I found a veritable garden of ever- 

 green trees dotting the slopes like a 

 verdant blanket, of varying shades 

 of green, with a spot of brilliant color 

 here and there, where a group of 

 maples grew, or the dull reds of the oaks showed. 

 On the main automobile road running 

 between Wheaton, Illinois, and Lake Geneva 

 the Dundee Nurseries are wonderfully situated. 

 In the Fox River valley the soil and climatic 

 conditions are exactly right for the growing of 

 hardy trees and shrubs to the utmost perfection. 

 Here William Hill established the Dundee 

 Nurseries in 1855, and here ever since his 

 nephew, David Hill, the present owner, and 

 his sons, have been developing the growing 

 of evergreen and other trees and shrubs. These 

 experts are devoting their lives to the develop- 

 ment of this nursery, and each discovery, every 

 development of forestry and horticulture, has 

 contributed to the perfection of the stock for 

 over fifty-three years. 



While the trees of the Dundee Nursery 

 grow on hills where they get the advantage of 

 alternating sun and shade, the soil is the rich 

 prairie land that has made Illinois famous for 

 its crops. In winter the cold is severe and the 

 snows lie deep, which insures hardy stock. In ad- 

 dition to the natural advantages, the long years of 

 development have enabled the owners of this 

 great nursery to grow wind break trees and to 

 establish groves of large, perfect specimen trees. 



THE WRONG IDEA A LAYMAN HAD OF 

 A NURSERY AND HIS ENLIGHTENMENT 



From the very beginning, D. Hill has grown 

 stock from seed; he has not been a fattener of 

 stock (to borrow a phrase from the cattle 

 raiser), but an originator. Buying or raising 

 the best seed, and then growing the tree from 

 the ground up under the best possible con- 

 ditions for that particular variety, enables the 

 Dundee Nursery to tell accurately what the 

 plant will do under given conditions. 



To me, the raising of a tree from seed was a 

 fascinating process. Somehow it had never 

 occurred to me that great trees grow from seed 

 planted in thick-set rows in a bed like radishes. 

 There, at the Dundee Nurseries, I saw beds 

 of pines set in rows almost as thick as bristles 

 of a hair brush, beds a hundred feet long, on 

 which millions of little trees were growing 

 under the shelter of wooden slats. Young 

 trees require shelter from the full glare of the 

 sun. 



In other beds the transplanted trees were 

 given more room to reach up and out into the 

 sunlight. In a half acre there were a half 

 dozen beds as carefully kept as a rose garden, 

 Trees ranging from the little sprout a couple 

 of inches high, under the sheltering slats, to 

 the vigorous young trees of a foot or more in 

 height, were planted side by side in the long, 

 narrow beds. They looked like long strips of 

 green carpet of varying naps. Here in this 

 great nursery could be studied the history from 

 babyhood to sturdy old age. 



The little trees are transplanted and retrans- 

 planted so as to encourage strong, compact 

 root growth. Each time a tree is moved it 

 is given a little more room to allow of its 

 perfect development. 



There were many plots such as described 

 above, each protected by a windbreak of 

 closely set spruces, and so arranged as to get 

 just the proper amount of sun and shade. 



The Dundee Nurseries supply trees, both 



evergreen and deciduous, from the little seed- 

 ling size to the tree mature enough to produce 

 an immediate effect. 



Nurserymen is a good term to apply to the 

 growers of trees, for their care of the young 

 forest children is much like that bestowed by 

 a mother on her babies. The bedding, the 

 food, the protection from the strong sun and 

 high winds, while applied differently, of course, 

 by the nurseryman, is almost as tender and 

 generally much more effective than the mother's 

 care. Even when the young trees are sent 

 away, they are as carefully wrapped as a child. 



For three generations this family has made 

 a study of the growing of trees in this country 

 and abroad, improving the quality of native 

 trees, developing and increasing the quantity 

 of trees and shrubs suitable for this climate 

 from other countries. 



The Dundee Nurseries have found that it 

 does not pay to grow poor stock, and their 

 experience is great. 



Some members of the Hill family are con- 

 stantly traveling throughout this country and 

 Canada, studying conditions, searching for 

 new varieties, working out the problems that 

 confront the planter of trees. This wide 

 acquaintance with conditions in all parts of the 

 country, and the long years of experience, 

 make the Dundee Nurseries of particular value 

 to their customers. Only by seeing the work 

 actually under way, however, can one realize the 

 care necessary to produce perfect trees. A 

 visit to the nursery is worth while ; it is a mighty 

 pleasant experience in the first place, and one 

 can find out more about the growth and care 

 of trees in a few hours at the Dundee Nurseries 

 than a week's study of books will give. Besides, 

 it adds much to the satisfaction of buying if 

 you pick out your own trees. 



Dundee is easily reached from Chicago, 

 and D. Hill and his sons would welcome you. 



"Like long strips of green carpet' 



"Given more room for perfect growth' 



The Garden Magazine Advertiser 



