2 
Linn County Nursery 
Apples thrive in almost any well drained soil. They respond to good care and 
cultivation and pay well for it. A farm with a well cared for orchard will sell for 
much more than one without. The old orchard is one of the last things forgotten 
about an old homestead. 
Commercial Orcharding. Iowa is in the heart of the apple producing region of 
the United States. Commercial orcharding has great possibilities here. By inten- 
sive methods it has been proved that apples can be made as sure a crop here as 
anywhere, and many well tended orchards are yielding large profits to their owners. 
The quality of Iowa apples cannot be excelled and their size and color compares! well 
with that of the more tasteless apples of the West. 
Varieties. In planting a commercial orchard it is judicious to plant but a few 
varieties and these should be selected with reference to securing the best pollina- 
tion. Experience has shown that large blocks of single varieties are often more or 
less barren. Home orchards should be selected to have fruit from early until late. 
Size to Plant. For commercial orchards it is always best to choose small, 
thrifty trees one or two years old and from three to five feet high, as these are 
more safely transplanted and with more satisfactory results than older and larger 
trees; in fact, the three to four-foot size is now being more used in commercial plant- 
ing than any other. 
How Propagated. Our apple trees are grafted by the most approved methods, 
aiming to produce trees best adapted to withstand the rigors of this climate. We 
use the piece root and long cion and plant up to the top bud. This makes a tree on 
its own roots and of known hardiness. Experience has repeatedly proved that trees 
budded or grafted on whole roots are not hardier than the seedling roots used, which 
are very variable and often too tender. Orchards of budded or "whole root" trees 
after a test winter will be found to contain scattering live trees surrounded by dead 
ones of the same varieties, because they had no roots of their own and only a few 
of the seedlings upon which they were budded or grafted were hardy enough to 
survive. 
