THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
“ As I have said before, apples are mostly grown by grafting, 
but if nurserymen are to have the losses by what is called 
root or crown gall, they will have to give up grafting and bud, 
as there are many varieties that are grafted that will have 
more or less crown knot, some such as Lady and Wolf River, 
nearly all. I would much prefer to grow apple by grafting, as 
with good land we get a good tree in two years, where it 
takes three years to get a two-year tree from budding, and 
where we have the trees on the land three years before we dig, 
our losses may be very heavy. Our budded trees from the 
cause of aphis, which we do not have much on two-year 
grafts, and aphis seem to attack seedling trees more than they 
do the grafts. I think that the cuts at the season of budding 
gives them a better place to hatch out. Most all of the trees 
of pears and quinces, also, all of the stone fruits are grown by 
budding. 
NATURAL PEACH SEED. 
“ Most nurserymen like to get natural peach seed, or seed 
that come from seedling peach. These seed are collected by 
stores in the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee. I 
do not suppose I will over estimate in saying that 50,000 
bushels of peach pits were sold from Western North Carolina 
of crop of 1900. 
“ The largest part of all pear, quince, plum and cherry 
Mahaleb stock and ornamental, such as shrubs, forest tree 
seedlings and evergreens, are grown by French nurserymen, 
who make it a special business to grow them for nurserymen. 
PLANTING. 
“ For our planting, we get the ground in the best order as 
soon as we can, in the spring ; using plow, harrow, disc-harrow, 
roller and sleds, and we plant all of our stock and seed 
by lines. For planting seed we use a narrow hoe for marking 
out and for planting grafts. We plant by marked lines, using 
spade to open out to put in the grafts ; also all other stocks 
we can plant by opening out with the spade, such as evergreens 
or large-rooted stocks, we trench out with spades to plant. 
CULTIVATING. 
“ As soon as we get all stock planted in the spring, we 
commence to cultivate, and using small-toothed cultivators, 
following with narrow bit hoes, and we keep cultivating all 
summer, commencing after every rain as soon as we can get in 
the ground, and if we have a dry season during July and 
August we keep cultivators going all the time, and I have seen 
two-year stock do much better in a dry season than it did in a 
wet season. Peach pits are planted from 4 to 6 inches, in 
rows 3 feet 6 inches. Apple grafts 9 inches, 3)4 feet rows; 
pear, quince, apple, plum and cherry 9 to 10 inches, in rows 
3)4 feet; shade trees, rows 4)4 to 5 feet, about 12 to 30 
inches in the rows. 
“ I think most trees will make a heavier growth on heavy 
land or land with a clay sub-soil, this well drained ; though 
apple, cherry and peach have a better system of roots on light 
soil. The apple is not as likely to be affected by aphis in 
light as it is in heavy or damp soil. 
PRUNING. 
“ In our nursery work, I find it harder to have pruning done 
with judgment than any other work in the nursery, and I think 
that more trees are ruined by too much pruning and rubbing 
of the buds off the bodies in the growing season. 
“After the trees are shaped in the spring before they have 
commenced to push out, there should be very little, or better 
4 l 
not any pruning or rubbing done until after the growth is 
made, say last of July or in August. In counting our one-year 
apple trees, I count to a height of 30 inches and up, and I 
estimate all at that height making good two-year trees by fall. 
If I can get them up that height, I most always can dig them 
out close at two-year-old. In the spring or winter we go over 
all, one and two year and prune up to a straight stem, and we 
head in all of the one-year to 32 or 34 inches, and two-year to 
36 inches, and as they bud out we will only rub off the buds 
close to the ground, not going above 6 inches on one-year. 
RUBBING OFF BUDS. 
“Of two-year we rub all the heavy ones up to 18 to 24 
inches, and the light or slender ones about 12 inches or less, 
and then we will not do any more pruning until July, unless 
we find that we have trees that will be too heavy in our three- 
year-old for our trade, and if we want to keep them down we 
will prune all they need ; but we caution our men not to do 
much on the light or slender trees, and it is the same way with 
all others, especially shade, and if they are pruned up much 
it will cause them to grow crooked. I was at one of the 
Northern Nurseries about ten years ago, which had a large 
stock of Carolina poplar and Kieffer pear trees, and there had 
been so much pruning and rubbing that the trees were the 
most crooked lot I ever saw 
NURSERY STOCK RUINED. 
“ I have heard the late Franklin Davis say when he started 
his little nursery in Rockbridge county, that he had a nice lot 
of apple trees that would be in two-year in the fall, and he 
thought that he would go out and sell them, and he had a man 
working for him, and he took him out in the nursery and 
showed him how he wanted them pruned, and when he came 
back from his canvass, he found that the man had cut nearly 
all the limbs off, and taken nearly every leaf off as high as he 
had pruned them, and his trees were about ruined, and they 
did not get over it that season. 
“ I think it is one great cause amongst those that plant 
trees, especially those for home use, that they want to trim up 
and not prune back as they should do when they plant out. 
All orchardists know that it is the life of a tree to head back 
well when planted out.” 
Ifn IRurset^ IRows. 
Treatment of Stock for Shipment —All stock intended for long 
journeys must be thoroughly defoliated and hardened, says P. J. Berck- 
mans, Augusta, Ga. Trees should be taken up without mutilating the 
roots, and no branches or roots cut. Puddle the entire tree in stiff 
clay and let it dry and pack in tight cases lined with building paper. 
Use dry moss and charcoal and pack the cases very tight. We also 
find that it is not judicious to use packing cases larger than 2 by 10 
feet. Packed in the above manner we have had stock in transit over 
four months, and 90 per cent of it grew after planting. 
Coating Tree Roots —So far as I know the only preparation used 
for coating trees which are to be sent out of this country is a thin liquid 
mud, says William A. Taylor, Washington, D. C., in American Agri¬ 
culturist. This is applied to all kinds of trees and some kinds of cut¬ 
tings that are shipped across the ocean and appears to be generally 
successful. In shipping tender cuttings the ends are frequently waxed 
with melted paraffin or grafting wax and wrapped in tinfoil to prevent 
their drying out. For ordinary deciduous trees that do not cross the 
equator, nothing more than the ordinary packing moss about the roots 
and straw about the tops is considered necessary. 
