158 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



from one to two hundred per cent advance, and yet at a less price 

 than the bare cost of growing trees in a propermanner in Maine. 

 Now a tree can be " rootgraftcd " in such a way that it shall be as 

 good as a tree grown by budding on a seedling stock in the nursery, 

 but this would involve the use of an entire seedling root by grafting 

 it at the collar, which would be nothing more or less than stock 

 grafting at Ibc surface of Ihc ground, and would involve as much 

 or more lal)or than the ordinary method. But these Western trcea 

 are made by working a scion on a bit of root sufficient to keep it 

 alive until it throws out roots of .its own. The work is done in 

 winter, when there is nothing else to do, and they are dibblei^. out 

 in spring, and no farther labor is given, except horse hoeing be- 

 tween the rows, until they ::re s(jld. When grown the}'- are simply 

 rooted cuttings* Thickly planted in rich soil, they soon run up 

 into pretty trees to outward appearance, but when lifted are found 

 to be furnished with only a little tuft of fibrous roots, unable to 

 support the tree properly when transplanted, and worse still, they 

 are destitute of the energy and vitality of trees grafted upon entire 

 seedling stocks. Probably nineteen-twentieths of the apple trees 

 brought into the State for the last ten years, are of this sort, and 

 although in some cases Ihey live several j'ears, yet I have never 

 seen an instance of what might l)e deemed fair success; and it is 

 undoubtedly true that not one in a hundred has lived to come into 

 bearing. The most successful instances are those where they die 

 outright at once, and involve no further trouble and disappoint- 

 ment ; but sometimes they live and linger f(jr years, until the 

 orchardist is fain to dig them out and be rid of the sight of them. 

 Too often, being ignorant of the real trouble, he is discouraged, 

 and concludes that all attempts at fruit culture are useless. Con- 

 cerning the value of such trees for planting upon Illinois prairies, 

 or in mild latitudes in other States, I have only to say that differ- 

 ent opinions are expressed by those who have had experience vvith 

 them. While many Western nurser3'men claim that they are good 

 enough, many others den}' it, and point to thousands of cases of 

 failure. At a meeting of the Western Fruit Growers' Convention, 



*I have never grown the apple from cuttings, but have been informeil by intelli- 

 gent orcliardists in the State that it iias been repeatedly done, and that with care and 

 good treatment they will attain a fair size and sometimes come into bearing; but that 

 they are never firmly rooted, always feeble, often diseased, usually unproductive and 

 worthless. 



