ESSAY ON NURSERY MANAGEMENT. 
457 
people as teachers, and this- lively interest is to us like clay in 
the hands of the potter, to be fashioned as we will. 
How important, then, that all our teachings be sound and 
practical; such as will lead to sure success. How should all 
cur acts in meetings like the present, be ^tripped of all ‘‘ ax- 
grinding,” selfishness, sectional feeling, or personal ambition ; 
and how carefully should \^fe consider all tlie qualities of fruit 
or tree before recommending for general cultivation. Thus 
may we fashion the future forests and orchards of the country. 
I do not forget the many and valid excuses that may be 
brought to cover our short-comings. When I forget the flank 
movements of frosts and droughts practiced upon us, my 
memory will be poor indeed. When any of us forget the les¬ 
sons we have learned, and so dearly paid for,’we may take it 
as a hint that we are no longer fit for the active business of 
life. 
That we, as a class, are full of the qualities necessary to the 
successful nurserymen, I cannot doubt. Who has more of 
driving energy ? Who have pursued their one object with 
greater tenacity, or surmounted greater obstacles ? Let us 
think of the past as an experimenkd school, wherein we have 
learned pleasing as well as bitter lessons, paid our full tuition, 
and from which we are now to graduate with enlarged views 
of our calling, and the necessary skill and knowledge to put 
those views into successful practice. 
Ever uppermost in our minds is the question, what shall we 
plant? This is all important to us, and, though sometimes 
forgotten, equally important to our customers. Yes, more im¬ 
portant to them, because with us results are reached in two to 
four years, while with them, the good or poor qualities run 
through many years. 
Particularly important is this question as it relates to apples^ 
because of these is the bulk and weight of our business, and of 
the farmers’ planting. Observe any orchard of twenty varie¬ 
ties, and we shall find five to eight of the best kinds bearing 
more fruit and bringing more money than all the others. In 
view of this fact, 1 ask, why plant the twelve poorer kinds ? If 
