
be i 


After the process of grafting has been completed, the little trees 
are kept in benches in the greenhouse covered with sash to 
maintain certain conditions of temperature and moisture. 

These men are at work in the greenhouse making grafts, a process which requires the 
services of a large force of men during the winter months. 
Behind the Scenes in the Nursery Business 
Propagation Department 
S MOST of our customers see only 
the finished product, they perhaps 
do not realize the great amount of 
care which is required to produce Ever- 
green trees. 
The average age of small Evergreens 
two to four feet runs about ten years. 
The trees are propagated by various 
means and carried through several stages 
of transplanting before they are suffi- 
ciently developed in size and form for 
customers to use in landscaping. 
The Hill Nursery specializes in Ever- 
green trees and is the largest nursery de- 
voted exclusively to this specialty, com- 
prising at the present time about 600 
acres adjoining the Village of Dundee, 
Illinois, forty miles northwest of Chicago. 
This nursery was established in 1855, 
having been owned and operated over 
several generations by the Hill family. 
Our principal business is supplying 
small Evergreens to other nurserymen 
= 

An Evergreen graft 
ready for planting. 
About 10 inches 
for growing on, also the supplying of 
salable sizes to nurserymen, landscape 
gardeners and other dealers in nursery 
products. 
There are three methods by which Hill 
Evergreens are propagated: From seeds, 
from cuttings and from grafts. 
The seeds are gathered from Europe, 
Asia and North America. Large quanti- 
ties normally are received from China 
and Japan. Seeds are grown in beds out- 
doors where they produce seedlings, 
ready for transplanting at the end of 
two or three years. 
Cuttings and grafts are propagated in 
greenhouses, after which they are in 
turn transplanted outdoors and carried 
through the various processes of trans- 
planting and root pruning until such 
time as they are ready for sale. Several 
illustrations on this page give a brief 
story of this interesting and highly tech- 
nical business. 


In the Hill Nursery there are 30 separate greenhouses 
devoted exclusively to the propagation of Evergreen cut- 
tings and grafts in choice horticultural varieties. 
The first period of transplanting cuttings and seedlings. 
Trees remain in these beds for two years 
tall. before being moved into field rows. 
31 



Some varieties can be grown from cuttings, which are 
rooted in shallow boxes and later transplanted, and 
then moved outdoors into beds. 




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All Evergreens grown from seed are produced outdoors. 
The seed is sown in the open ground, covered with sand 
and also covered for the first year with lath racks. 

carried into the greenhouses during the winter. 
