of profanity when coming into fruit. This scrutiny of propagating beds
is a department that I shall never delegate to any one else.

It is not thrift to save in the first cost of plants, if thereby the
risk of obtaining poor, mixed varieties is increased. I do not care to
save five dollars to-day and lose fifty by the operation within a
year. A gentleman wrote to me, "I have been outrageously cheated in
buying plants." On the same page he asked me to furnish stock at rates
as absurdly low as those of the man who cheated him. If one insists on
having an article at far less than the cost of production, it is not
strange that he finds some who will "cheat him outrageously." I find
it by far the cheapest in the long run to go to the most trustworthy
sources, and pay the grower a price which enables him to give me just
what I want.

When plants are both fine and genuine they can still be spoiled, or,
at least, injured in transit from the ground where they grew. Dig so
as to save all the roots, shake these clean of earth, straighten them
out, and tie the plants into bundles of fifty. Pack in boxes, with the
roots down in moss and the tops exposed to the air. Do not press them
in too tightly or make them too wet, or else the plants become heated
--a process which speedily robs them of all vitality. In cool seasons,
and when the distance is not too great, plants can be shipped in
barrels thickly perforated with holes. The tops should be toward the
sides and the roots in the centre, down through which there should be
a circulation of air. In every case, envelop the roots in damp moss or
leaves--damp, but not wet. Plants can be sent by mail at the rate of
one cent per ounce, and those obtained in this way rarely fail in
doing well.