Success with Fruit Trees 
DON'TS. Before setting out fruit trees, the home orchardist should be 
cautioned against practices that cause failure. Do not plant fruit trees 
in poorly drained soils. Do not use any manure or fertilizer in the tree 
holes. Do not plant when the soil is soggy or saturated. Do not fail 
to prune trees as recommended below. 
PLANTING. See Figures 1 and 2. Dig holes more than large enough 
to accommodate the root system. Fill the bottom of the hole with 
topsoil and set the bud union exactly at ground level. Fill in with 
more topsoil, to which has been added peat moss if your soil is heavy. 
Irrigate at once with a slow stream of water in the basin constructed 
after planting. Add more soil as required. 
PRUNING. At planting time, all trees should be cut back at 24 to 
36 inches above the bud union. All of the side branches should be 
eliminated from apricots, plums and prunes. Two or three buds should 
be left on three or four well-spaced branches on peaches, nectarines 
and almonds (see Fig. 1). Apples, pears and cherries usually are 
whips with few or no side branches, but should there be any, cut 
them off. 
Figure 3 shows the development of the average fruit tree after the 
first season's growth, and how it should be pruned. All varieties 
should be thinned out and cut back as indicated in the right-hand 
diagram except cherries, walnuts and figs, which should never be cut 
back, only thinned out. In general, the same plan for pruning is 
followed in succeeding years. 
CULTURE. Irrigate about once each month during the dry season. 
A balanced commercial fertilizer can be applied after the trees have 
been planted about two months, at the rate of about Y2 pound per 
tree. Use a manure mulch in the basin during fall and winter. 
OUR STOCK is produced at our Helmer, Kelley, Plainsburg and La 
Branza growing grounds in Merced County, under our personal super- 
vision. In choosing land on which to grow our stock, we select a 
sandy loam. This type of soil, combined with the thorough manner 
in which we care for our nursery, produces a strong, well-hardened 
tree, with an ideal root system. 
OUR BUDS are selected personally from the heaviest producing trees 
in the best orchards of the section. 
OUR THIRTY-EIGHT YEARS OF EXPERIENCE in the nursery business 
enables us to give you expert advice on planting and care of trees 
and vines. And please remember that when we give you advice, it 
is what we conscientiously believe and not in any way influenced by 
what we have to sell. 
SMALL ORDERS are given the same consideration that large orders 
receive. This is evidenced in the fact that we make a specialty of 
Family Orchards. 
Ten per cent of the amount of the order must accompany each order 
to insure its being reserved, and the balance is to be paid on delivery 
unless terms are arranged in advance. 
OUR GUARANTEE: We handle our stock to the best of our ability 
to keep it in a live, healthy condition, so we must ask that all com- 
plaints be made within 10 days after receipt of stock. We use the 
greatest care in keeping our stock true to name, but for any error we 
will not be liable for more than the original purchase price of the 
stock mislabeled. In the case of unexpected catastrophe we are re- 
leased from filling orders. 
Packing is done at cost and the following prices are at our nursery. 
However, we make delivery where the size of the order and the dis- 
tance warrants it. Other orders are shipped collect, by the safest and 
fastest method. 
GRADING: All trees are graded by caliper, rather than by height. 
Thus when planted out and cut back they are of uniform size and more 
satisfactory to the planter. The sizes given in this list represent ihe 
approximate measurements taken two inches above the bud. 
Height Caliper 
tS) 48) JESSE EMCI. 5.6 2c ao io Oho IO CIN OtnCnraG 5¥e Inch UP 
Ae tOmOm CSL E GRCIC Chuan smemtnentier cia east cheno a. eneveleione exes Ye to % Inch 
Bhs toy 1s Meteye (Chet Kein & Group a cick GUAGE ECC ORO ¥% to Y2 Inch 
7s iioss NESS VEROISIANS oa crcup eid O Ol ROP RCRCRON RENO NECN Y% to ¥e Inch 
WE INVITE INSPECTIONS OF OUR NURSERIES 
AND GROWING GROUNDS 
Prices Subject to Change Without Notice 


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FIGURE 2 
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FIGURE 3 
STRIBLING’S NURSERIES, MERCED, CALIFORNIA 
