1890-1914 



Behind our stock, as a guarantee 

 of its superior quality, is the ripe 

 experience of twenty-four years in 

 Nursery and Orchard work. Three 

 generations of the Harrisons are 

 devoting their entire time and at- 

 tention to the production of "Har- 

 rison Quality" trees for you to plant 



HOW WE HAVE GROWN 



AS TOLD BY J. G. HARRISON, THE FOUNDER OF HARRISONS' NURSERIES 



Just two years over a quarter of a century ago I went into a section of southern Delaware and bought a piece 

 of land containing about one hundred and seventy acres of sandy loam soil. On this farm I found about a hundred 

 peach trees of the Smock variety. The trees were old, and never had been taken care of right, but I sold my first 

 crop for $260.00. 



For a long time I had wanted to get into the nursery business, and this looked like my chance. I started to 

 grow peach seedlings, and when these were ready to bud I hired an expert to do the budding, and my two boys, 

 Orlando and George, did the tying. The buds we used were taken from two of the best trees in the Smock orchard, 

 and since the very beginning I have advocated using buds from bearing trees. 



That was really the beginning of "Harrisons' Nurseries." 



After I had run the business about two years, my sons, Orlando and George, were taken into the firm, and we 

 bought land around Berlin, Maryland, and started a real nursery business. Some of my visitors have said that the 

 nurseries are not at Berlin, but that Berlin is at the nurseries. 



Our nurseries are about seven miles from the Atlantic Ocean, and about fifty feet above the level. The tem- 

 perature in this part of Maryland never gets very low in winter, and the summers are a great deal cooler than at 

 inland points. The average temperature for the year is between 53 degrees and 54 degrees. We never have extreme 

 droughts here, and the ocean breezes are always moist. 



Most of our soil is sandy loam with a subsoil of clay loam — just the kind for roots to grow in and form a 

 system that will support a tree when it is transplanted into other soil. The geologists say this soil was an ocean 

 bed at some time. 



Well, my little Delaware peach orchard has grown into a nursery bigger than I ever dreamed of. Two thous- 

 and five hundred acres are used for growing nursery stock, and on this land we have over ten million fruit trees. 

 In addition to the nursery proper we have a big tract of land lying along the coast. 



We grow a hundred and sixteen varieties of peaches, ninety varieties of apples, the best kinds of pears, cher- 

 ries and plums. Strawberry plants are a big item, too. Last year we grew forty-five varieties, and handled almost 

 ten million plants. 



When I say we grow four million peach trees and four million apple trees, it doesn't mean very much unless 

 you have some standard by which to compare the figures; but, if you could stand in our nurseries and look over a 

 block of these trees, the figures would begin to make an impression. You can look in one direction for almost a 

 mile and see nothing b^ut the tops of little peach trees. 



Turning in another direction you get a broad view of the blocks of apple trees — long, straight rows of whips 

 a foot or more high, to the sturdy youngsters that are ready to be dug. And the rows are clean — every one 

 cultivated as carefully as a farmer cultivates his prize-winning corn-patch. 



If you look another way you will see row on row of privet — literally privet by the mile. Now you begin 

 to realize the size of the nursery that had its beginning in the little peach orchard in Delaware, and has grown 

 until it now covers over four square miles — four sections my western friends call them. 



The buds that we use come from bearing trees mostly in our own orchards; we have about three hundred 

 thousand trees in bearing orchards to cut our buds from. This part of the work is looked after by George A. 

 Harrison, and, beginning about June 15, he has a large force of men at work. One of his champion "budders" 

 covered 4,700 peach trees in ten hours one day last summer. Many of these men have been with us for years. 



Of course we fertilize and cultivate the trees. If the fertilizer 

 used last summer was piled on flat cars holding about twenty-five 

 tons each, you would have to stand at the crossing until a train 

 over a mile long pulled by. Cultivation stops about the first of 

 September, so the trees can get ready for winter. We grow cow- 

 peas between every two rows of apple seedlings; the vines are left 

 oyer winter and then plowed under in the spring. Does this fer- 

 tilizer pay? Come to Berlin and see for yourself. 



Two summers ago we built a new packing-house — the old 

 houses weren't big enough to take care of things as fast as they 

 were dug. The main house is about 400 feet long and 150 feet 

 wide. "Mud-holes" are made in the cement floor, and the roots of 

 every tree are dipped before packing. A railroad switch, long 

 enough to hold thirty-five cars, runs along the house, and the car 

 and house floor are on a level, so it isn't hard work to shoot the 

 boxes into the cars. 



There are many other things of interest around the nursery — 

 the sawmill, where our boxes are made; the moss swamps, where 

 we get all the packing moss; the fumigating plant; the cold- 

 storage house for keeping buds, a process originated by George 

 Hale Harrison. 



We would like to have you come to Berlin, see the nurseries, 

 the bearing orchards, the big farms around here, and go to Ocean 

 City for a dip in salt water. Come at any time — we are always at 

 home and ready to receive visitors. Two rows of a block of 60,000 Norway Maples 



