ry reason to believe that scions have been taken from
ordinary seedling trees of any kind, inserted in stocks and sold for the
best varieties, and that a large number of trees have been substituted
and sold for what they were not. The prospective planter must depend
upon the honesty and integrity of the nurseryman, and should inform
himself on this point.

The National Nut Growers' Association has done no greater service to the
pecan industry than that which they have rendered in protecting the
public from fraudulent agents and nurserymen. Happy is the nurseryman
whose reputation for square dealing merits the trust and confidence of
tree-planters throughout the country.

COST OF NURSERY STOCK.

At present, the prices quoted for one and two year old stock of standard
varieties varies from 75 cents to $2.50 per tree, in small numbers, with
considerable reduction for trees in lots of one hundred or one thousand.
It is not improbable that these prices may be somewhat reduced within
the next decade, as greater efficiency is gained in propagating.

DETECTING BOGUS TREES.

How may budded or grafted trees be distinguished from ordinary seedlings
or from "doctored" seedling trees? Many people have purchased seedling
trees at a dollar or so per tree, under the supposition that they were
budded or grafted stock. It is well to know something of the
distinctions between them.

[Illustration: FIG. 27. External and Longitudinal Interior View of Bud
Union.]

If the trunks are straight and smooth, with bark uniform in appearance
throughout, the trees have not been budded or grafted, unless the point
of union is at the ground, and the trees having been grafted, and a
terminal bud on graft has grown. If the young trees have been budded,
the trunks will not be straight; a bend will be seen at the point where
the bud was inserted (see Fig. 27), and the scars of the union of the
veneer-shield or annular bud and the point at which the stock was cut
off will be distinctly noticeable. The bark above the point of union on
the grafted or budded stocks will be different from that below. There is
something characteristic about the color and appearance and the number,
size and shape of the lenticles of each variety of pecan, and while it
is impossible to describe this difference in appearance (it can only be
learned after a large amount of experience and observation), yet the
very striking difference between the seedling stock and the wo