The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1905-11-15

colored plates showing how well GER
tain apples look on paper. There are
no doubt exceptions to the rule, but,
generally, these men have nothing at
stake but to get your order and your
money. Don't, as a rule, let such men
guide you in what you want to plant
for a good paying orhcard. Don't
plant extensively of any new untried
variety. 1t may have been tried some
where but be sure that it has been
thoroughly tried in the locality where
you are planting a commercial orch
ard.
Perhaps the best thing man can
do is to go among the experienced
and intelligent growers in his own To-
cality or in locations similar to his
and learn from them. Many man
learns by the mistakes he makes, as
we'll as by his successes. Such men
can tell you what to avoid. as well
as what is likely to be successful.
Where to Get Trees.
One of the problems that will
worry the beginner in fruit growing
is where to get his treres. The SAT-
est thing is for him to grow his own
trees. But to do this he must have
degree of knowledge of budding and
grating that can not be expected in
the average man who wants to start
an orchard. Then if a man can do
all this, the element of time becomes
an important factor. Two or three
years must be lost in waiting if man
grows his own trees.
The nurseryman is an Indispensable
factor in the business of fruit grow
ing But there are nurserymen and
nurserym which is the same thing
as saying this class of men differ very
much from one another, or to state
it another way, some are reliable
and some are not But this does not
mean that some are honest and some
are not. No doubt but this could be
said truthfully, but it is not any more
true of the nurserymen than of any
other class of men. The writer gives
it as his candid conviction that but
few men in the nursery business are
dishonest. His experience with this
class of men has convinced him that,
with few exceptions, they are men OF
high and noble purposes and worthy
of all confidence so far as their in
tentions are concerned. But men of
noble purposes differ largely in their
business methods. CarelessnesS won't
do in the nursery business. But this
often results in many good mans
undoing and works very great injury
to his patrons.
Only the man who has been en-
gagged in the nursery business knows
how many things must be carefully
watched that no mistakes be made
in order to insure perfect reliability
in the trees that are sold to custom
ers The twigs must be cut from the
right trees, they must be correctly
labeled, and then the man who does
the grating must be sure not to get
these twigs mixed and the gratis must
not be mixed, and each bunch must
be correctly labeled When these
CRAFTS are set in the nursery care
must be used in placing the nursery
stakes. When these trees are dug to
fill orders great care must be used
not to get the various kinds mixed
and then each bundle in an order
must be carefully labeled. A mistake
made at one point cannot usually be
corrected at another. The wonder to
me is that more mistakes are not
made. What may seem strange to
the inexperienced is the fact that few
er mistakes are made in the big nur-
series than in the small ones. The
only way to account for this is that
men who have the faculty of running
large business have the ability to
eliminate mistakes from their bust
ness.
Our laws are quite rigid about the
work of nurserymen. They are put
under bonds in most states, but laws
cannot transform a careless man into
careful one. But how can be-
ginner tell the reliable nurseryman
from the careless one? That is a