FIRST YEAR’S GROWTH. Fig. 84. 
crop. When the last order placed with this agent 
bore fruit, trees that should have been Roxbury Rus¬ 
sets bore a bountiful crop of crab apples. From an 
order for Rhode Island Greenings 1 harvested Gra- 
vensteius and Ben Davis. One dozen Fameuse order¬ 
ed gives us McIntosh Red, this last not a bad substi¬ 
tution. I feel very much in the same frame of mind 
as the Hope Farm man toward whosoever trimmed 
bis peach trees, and with the same consolation of 
bearing the misfortune as cheerfully as possible. 
After a man has planted, fertilized and pruned trees, 
and brought them to fruitage, to find the fruit utterly 
worthless, and the trees the same for top-working, 
with no redress in dollars and cents, his thoughts are 
liable to be mighty serious even if his words are mild. 
I have since learned this agent’s way of doing busi¬ 
ness. In the Fall and Winter he obtains all the or¬ 
ders possible in a given locality, then goes to Ro¬ 
chester, N. Y., in the Spring and buys culls and yard 
trees, labeling them any variety for which he has 
orders. He continues to work in the same locality 
until the trees approach bearing age; then he seeks 
new pastures and is very careful to avoid the old. I 
understand that the nurserymen, to facilitate Spring 
delivery, take up many trees and set them in trenches 
in the Fall. Then, after selecting the best to fill their 
orders, they sell the remainder in job lota to these 
TREES TRIMMED FOR PLANTING Fig. 88. 
to define the meaning of “pedigree.” Some apply it 
to seedlings, for what reason I cannot understand. 
From my view point, I cannot see how a plant is 
pedigreed any more from the mere fact that man 
hybridized the seed instead of nature. In either case, 
however, there are many failures, not so many, of 
course, when it is controlled as from nature’s meth¬ 
ods, but the principle is the same in either method. 
If we take the animal kingdom as our guide we must 
perfect the principle so that we could perpetuate the 
fixed qualities by selection of the seed and thus re¬ 
produce the same qualities. Instead of this we can¬ 
not retain the same types by reproduction, but must 
propagate from the one type we have produced from 
seed. If we undertake to do it from seed as in animals 
we lose what we have already acquired either by ad¬ 
vancement or deterioration, often the latter. So this 
seems to me sufficient reason to assume that our 
pedigree is only in name. Nature has given us most 
of our improved varieties of fruits, as they come 
from chance seedlings, and to my mind have just as 
good pedigree as those hybridized by man. The other 
method, and the one with the most advocates, is from 
selection of the desired qualities, and they assume 
that we can perpetuate these qualities by this 
method; that if we find a tree or plant that comes up 
to our idea of perfection by propagating from this 
Vol. LX III. No. 2824 . 
IN A CROWBAR HOLE. Fig. 86. 
ship to you in good order? There are hundreds of 
small farms where there are a few trees set each 
A MULCH OF STONES. Fig. 87. 
year, and the agent who takes your order and de¬ 
livers the goods at your door in good condition has 
become almost a necessity. Perhaps I was an easy 
NEW YORK, MARCH 12, 1904 . 
PER YEAR. 
“PEDIGREE" FRUIT TREES AND PLANTS. 
This is a subject that should receive the careful at¬ 
tention of every intelligent, honest horticulturist. 
Those who advocated the principle of “pedigreed 
plants” honestly no doubt never thought that they 
were making it possible for many to take advantage 
and mislead the unthinking public. It is very difficult 
crowbar; hole peach tree. fig. 85; 
the nurseries.” There is no local nursery, and will 
the distant nurseryman put up 10, 20 or 40 trees and 
A FARMER’S SIDE OF “ SUBSTITUTION .” 
What a " Tree Agent ” Did. 
In the Spring of 1886 I commenced in a small way 
to plant fruit trees, and continued to plant from 20 to 
40 each year for the next six years, buying of a tree 
agent, not an agent of the nurseryman. Therefore I 
have no grievance against the nurseryman. My first 
bill of trees fruited true to name. Subsequent orders 
were a mixture of almost all varieties named in the 
catalogue. Notwithstanding the fact that the substi¬ 
tution clause was stricken from the order blank at 
my request, every bundle came labeled in exact ac¬ 
cordance with the order. Now for results. The agent 
was ever anxious to sell me Pewaukee. I was as 
anxious to avoid it. I wanted Baldwins and Rhode 
Island Greenings. One year I had 25 bearing Pewau¬ 
kee trees, now grafted to Baldwins. I also have about 
20 nondescripts, utterly worthless except for cider 
apples. Where land is from $75 to $100 per acre and 
the tax rate 22 mills, cider apples are an unprofitable 
one. That I was green at the tree business I will ad¬ 
mit. Scripture tells us: “By their fruits ye shall 
know them.” I have it demonstrated to my mind 
that you don’t know a tree until it fruits, and then 
you will know whether the agent of whom you or¬ 
dered them was a knave or an honest man. This is 
no fancy sketch or freak of the imagination. The 
same game is being worked yearly throughout the 
State. The remedy lies in never placing an order 
with any agent who uses his own name in the order 
blank instead of some reliable and up-to-date nur¬ 
seryman’s. h. j. 
Androscoggin Co., Me. 
cutthroats, jobbers, peddlers, swindlers, or any other 
name your conscience will allow you to call them. 
Methinks T hear some one say: “Deal direct with 
