CHE REFERENCE LIBRARY - Pole Shift Survival Information

CERTAIN ELEMENTS IN NURSERY PRACTICE ,179
ing of nurst’r) lands, as other agricultural lands are supplemented,
ad not, to rely on the eflect of a single ingredient to
meet il. present dificulty. This is the rational procedure.
[‘ndoubtedl,v nursery lands will respond to good rotations,
careful working, and thoughtful fertilizer management as readily
as other ill’C’itS. The nursery practice has been too much like
a skinning process. Some nurserymen now feed live-stock
and IN the manure in preparing and supplementing nurser)
lands.
Another di&ult~- in using nursery lands in succession is
the danger from soil diseases. The nurseryman must be
c~;~rtM not to infect his land. Rotation Seems yet to be the
w$, remt+*, if trouble arises.
Grcrdes of frees
Common opinion demands that a tree, to be first-class,
must be perfectly straight and comely. This arbitrary standard
is but the expression of the general demand for large and
good-looking trees. Yet there are some vari.eties of fruit-trees
that cannot be made to grow in a comely shape, and there is
a 1 ways a ten&n- to discontinue growing them, notwithstanding
the fact that they may possess great intrinsic merit.
All this is to be deplored. The requiremen.ts of a first-class
tree should be that the specimen is vigorous, free from disease
or blemishes mtl that it possess the characteristics of the
variet>T. This allows a crooked tree to be first-class if it is a
Greening or Red Canada apple, because it is the nature of these
varieties to grow crooked. Wayward and often scraggly
growers among apples are Williams Early Red, Wealthy, Oldenburg.
Wagner, and others. A crooked or wayward grower is
not nrc~essarilj~ a weak tree. It is advisable to top-work weakgrowing
varieties on strong-growing and straight-growing ones3.
(See pages 1 ti7- 1 t $4 .)