282 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
Packing and Handling of Nursery Stock 
Address before the Milwaukee Convention by W. T. Hood, Richmond, Va. 
W HILE I have attended most of the sessions since 
1887 at Detroit. I have always been one of 
the listeners and I do not know why I should 
be selected to address this meeting. This is my fifty- 
first year in the nursery business, starting between the 
plow handles at the Richmond Nurseries of Franklin 
Davis & Co., March, 1866. In the early years of the 
Richmond Nurseries most all of the stock, which con¬ 
sisted principally of apples, peach and pears were put 
up in bales—Mr. Franklin Davis was very particular 
to have all stock put up nicely and had men to do cer¬ 
tain parts and they became expert in the work they did, 
especially those that put on the burlap, and those that 
roped up the bales and each man tried to see if he could 
not make the neatest package. Refore packing season, 
a good supply of moss, fine hay, or oat straw, and long 
rye straw also burlap and rope was on hand. 
In digging trees Mr. Davis would have them carried 
to the packing yard by men and heeled in. He was 
very particular about not getting them skinned and 
would not let the trees be placed in wagons. When 
he commenced to fill orders, Mr. Davis was right on the 
job and gave out the labels to men to go to the trenches 
and bring in the trees. Each variety was tied together, 
then proved or counted to see if the order was correct 
and then a tag tied on the top of the largest bunch of 
trees before being given to the packers. Two men who 
did nothing else—the packers, had rope and windlass, 
the rope had a pulley on it and one end was fastened to 
a post and was laid down in a small trough in the 
ground, straw was placed over the rope and 
the packers commenced to make up the bale by putting 
a layer of bunches of trees on the straw and then would 
sprinkle a little moss over the roots until the bundle was 
finished—bundles varying in size from twenty-five to 
two hundred and fifty first-class trees. As soon as all of 
the trees were together the rope was brought over 
the bale, through the pulley and under the bundle, 
through the trough and fastened to the windlass, then 
drawn as tight as could be drawn, a rope was then put 
around the bale and when properly tied the windlass 
was loosened up. The bale was then put to one 
side for the two men that strawed. They had a bed of 
rve straw with three or more strings under with which 
to hold the straw around the bale until capped and 
roped. The bale then went to the men who did the 
capping—the cappers would cut a piece of canvass large 
enough for the bale to be capped and would lay this 
down on the ground and put a layer of fine hay or oat 
straw and then sprinkle a little moss on the straw, they 
would also put a little moss under the end of the rye 
straw, around the hale and as soon as the cap was put 
on. the ropers put on the rope and the tags were placed 
on the outside of the bales. After the bales were 
finished they were taken to a pool, well or cistern about 
four feet deep which had a tripod, rope and pulley and 
windlass, and an iron basket and every bale was placed 
in the basket and put in water until it was well soaked— 
every bale packed during the day would be wet before 
the men stopped. When we were busy during the 
fall, I have seen fifty to sixty men filling orders and 
baling trees. 
We do a retail business through agents and our bus¬ 
iness is made up of small orders, think we pack thirty 
thousand or more orders in the fall, and as we sell over 
a large territory, we sell a long list of varieties and a 
great many varieties we sell we do not grow and have to 
buy from other nurserymen, and I must say, that most 
nurserymen do not pack with proper material or with 
proper care. With our large list of customers whom 
we have to please, our desire is not only to supply them 
with proper stock, true to name, but we want to put up 
stock in such condition that when received by customer, 
he will not only be pleased with the stock but will be 
pleased with the manner in which it is put up, and if he 
is pleased we will not experience any trouble to retain 
him as a customer. In buying stock we very often 
find, if it is in bulk, that most of the parties we buy 
from use very little packing material and that either 
wheat straw, pine needles or a lot of old dirt and weeds 
that is only fit for the manure pile. In our packing we use 
mostly boxes in a great many sizes. Our 
standard length is ten feet and sizes from ten by ten 
heads to thirty-two by thirty-two. We also make 
length up to fourteen feet, our boxes are all paper lined, 
using what is called rosin sized paper forty pounds to a 
roll of five hundred feet, costing from 66 to 76 cents by 
the hundred rolls or more. We try to make our 
bundles run about fifteen to twenty first class trees, 
and twenty-five trees of 3 to 4 ft. sizes, as we find our 
men will pack better if the bundles are not too large. 
For wholesale orders, I think all first and second sizes 
should be put up in bundles of ten. Very small sizes 
should be in 26’s and should have two labels on each 
bundle. For our retail orders we label everything, which 
is mostly done in the nursery row and we also label each 
rose, shrub and most all currants, grapes, gooseberries 
and raspberries. Doing this, we know that our cus¬ 
tomers are getting what the label calls for—all our 
small fruits are wrapped with canvas cloth or paper 
around the roots and most of the tops. If I could 
get the work done with our labor, think it would pay 
us to bag the roots of every order of trees before boxing. 
I will say that we provide plenty of shingle tow, excel¬ 
sior for packing in boxes around roots of trees, every 
bundle being dipped in a thin mud before placing in 
box, we very seldom have a complaint from a customer 
about not getting their stock in good condition. 
I should say that all small fruits which include cur¬ 
rants, gooseberries, grape vines, raspberries and straw¬ 
berries, should be tied in bundles of twenty-five and 
two labels put on each bundle, all sizes of California 
Privet as well as other varieties of privet should be tied 
in bundles of twenty-five. In receiving stock we find 
most nurserymen have different ways of packing, many 
still using the old methods of forty years ago, 
