227 
Washington, Jefferson, Columbia, Smith’s Orleans, Coe’s Golden Drop, 
Downton Imperatrice and Autumn Gage, which will give a constant suc¬ 
cession of the very finest plums down to the middle, and, in favorable 
seasons, to the last of October. I do not recommend this as the best list 
which can be given, but they have all been tried here, and found well 
adapted to our climate. 
I shall not attempt to give a catalogue of pears, as they have not yet 
been sufficiently tested with us to enable me to give any reliable informa¬ 
tion, as to the varieties which succeed best. In selecting these the culti¬ 
vator must, for a few years yet, trust to chance for getting such varieties 
as will best suit our climate. 
With a catalogue of his wants, already made out, let the farmer go- 
himself to a nursery of established reputation. Let him select his own 
trees, not giving preference to the old ones because they are going to bear 
soon. The old trees are the cullings of the nursery, and were left to 
grow old only because they were poorest. By taking young, thrifty trees 
from two to three years old, from the bud or graft, they may be trained; 
into any shape or habit of growing, which the taste of the horticulturist 
may require ; and will with propei care and culture not be more than one 
year behind a tree taken from the nursery at five years old, in coming 
into tull bearing. 
Let him be careful to ascertain how his trees were grafted. The phrase 
“ grafted in the root” means different things at different nurseries. In 
one it means that the root of a tree is taken from the ground and divided 
into small pieces, into each of which a scion is grafted. In another, it 
means that the stock was cut off even with the ground, and the scion in¬ 
serted just above the neck or collar of the tree. 
In the first case, the vital energy which nature intended for one tree 
is divided amongst a dozen, and by the time the tree has reached the or¬ 
dinary age of perfection its vital energy is spent, and it commences a 
rapid decline. In the other case, it has not only the whole vital energy 
intended for it by nature, but the graft derives its support from just that 
part of the stock which is best circulated to impart to it all the energy 
it possesses. Ascertain then to a certainty that the tree was grafted above 
the collar, but with very few exceptions ; amongst which, if in damp soils, 
may be the Rambo and Greening apples, the nearer to this point the better. 
