PREFACE 
F 1 EK more than forty years’ experience of oiir Mr. Hood in the 
nursery business, all of which time has been spent in this city, we 
take great pleasure in presenting this new edition of our Catalogue 
to our friends and patrons, hoping that they will accept our thanks 
for the generous aid and confidence they have bestowed upon us in 
the past ; and it will be our aim in the future, by strict attention to 
business and honest dealing in all transactions, to merit a continuance of the same. 
We w'ill spare no needful amount of cost and pains to grow the very best stock that 
can be grown, and shall recommend only such fruits as have proved to be good ; 
and new fruits that have not been fully tested we will recommend to be planted in 
small lots, which will be a great means of disseminating them, and may be the cause 
of having many new fruits that will prove to do as well and be as popular all over 
the country as h.arly Harvest, Johnson's Fine Winter, lien Davis and Winesap in 
Apples; liartlett. Duchess and Kieffer in Fears; Elberta, Crawford’s Early and 
l.ate, and Heath Cling in I’eaches; lirighton. Concord and Martha in ('.rapes. 
In the past twenty-live years there has been great improvement in growing first- 
class stock, and the people ha\ e been educated to know what are good trees. Those 
that we sent out twenty-live years ago for first-class would not be considered second- 
class now. For instance, twenty-five years ago we planted 23,760 apple grafts to one 
acre ; for the last four years we have planted only 15,488 grafts to the acre, 'I'hen 
grafting was done on the piece-root system, making five to six grafts out of one 
seedling ; now we use only one seedling for each graft, which we claim to be the true 
and only way it ought to be done ; and with our motto to send out only the best 
stock, we do not make more than 40 or 50 per cent of trees that we can fill our 
orders with, and the others we destroy, digging out those that we know will not 
make good trees, giving those left a much better chance to make strong and healthy 
trees ; and while we do not claim to sell cheaper trees than any other first-class 
nursery, we think they will compare favorably with them anti are as cheap as we can 
grow the stock we offer. As to our reliability not to send out anything that is not 
true to name, we will refer to the many references we have receivetl, the pleasure we 
lake in growing good trees, and our long association with the business. While we 
employ only good men, and use every effort to satisfy our customers, mistakes will 
sometimes occur, which we are always willing to correct. 
Our Nurseries are located one and one-half miles north of the city, on the Lake- 
side Car Line, and at Wickams, Hanover County, Va., between the C. & O. and 
R. F. & l>. R. R. We employ throughout the year in the cultivation of our stock 
from fifty to seventy-five hands, and work thirty horses and mules. 
W'e secured control for a number of years of one of the most desirable farms in 
Hanover county (twenty miles from Richmond); chocolate loam and gray soil ; this 
farm is reputed to be one of the finest plantations within thirty miles of Richmond, 
and has not heretofore been planted in trees. The land has all the re<|uirements for 
the propagation of the very finest nursery stock, aiul the major portion of our [ilant- 
iiig is being done, there. Our Mr. Hood personally spent considerable time, making 
a minute examination of various farms in the vicinity, and failed in every instance to 
discover any trace whatsoever of injurious di.sea.ses to fruit trees, vines and shrubs. 
We consider ourselves especially fortunate in securing such admirably adapted land 
and can promise our patrons in future, as furnished in the past, nursery stock of the 
Ceptifieate of Inspection accompanies ail shipments. Stock thoroughly 
fumigated before shipping 
