128 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



method. With such trees to start with if the orchardist will, 

 afterward, take reasonable care of them by proper cultivation 

 and fertilizing of his orchard — if he will give attention to the 

 shaping of his trees (the umbrella form being decidedly the 

 best) — if he will protect the trunks against rabbits, mice and 

 borers as advised in Mr. Minkler's paper — if he will not butcher 

 his trees by barbarous or untimely pruning — if he will wage a 

 determined warfare against insect pests and, finally, handle and 

 market his firuit in a careful, and judicious manner, the results 

 will be most gratifying, No money in apple culture, do you say? 

 If so, what do you call the returns of one old tree near Polo, 

 which in '86 yielded forty-five bushels of marketable apples, 

 which sold for $1.25 per bushel; making $56.25 as the gross 

 receipts for one year's crop of one tree. Sir. Whitney, of Frank- 

 lin Grove, has repeatedly realized from top worked Red Astra- 

 chan trees $30 per tree from one year's crop, when root grafted 

 trees of the same ages, and with the same treatment, have not 

 paid for the use of the ground occupied. In my own experience 

 I have suffered as serious losses from winter-killing of root graft- 

 ed trees in the nursery as, perhaps, any one of our northern 

 growers. During the winters of '82-'8<3, '84-85 alone, over 40,000 

 of them were ruined, while my top-worked trees of the same 

 varieties, of the same ages from the root- graft standing in the 

 same blocks, and under the same cultivation, escaped without 

 the loss of a twig or even a bud. I might go on, citing numer- 

 ous other instances of the same sort, but having already intruded 

 too much upon your valuable time, I must leave this matter in 

 your hands and only say: if these statements shall be instru- 

 mental in leading others to give this matter fair and impartial 

 trials, I shall feel amply repaid for writing this paper. 



DISCUSSION. 



After reading his paper, Mr. Cotta exhibited several top- 

 worked trees, with one, two and three-year old heads, to illustrate 

 this mode of propagation. He also called attention to the 

 necessity of forming the heads of these trees as near to the point 

 of union as possible, in order to prevent their growing dispropor- 

 tionately tall, and stated that all forks of the one year headed 

 trees should be cut away and the central or leading shoot cut 

 back to about a foot from its base. With this properly attended 

 to, the second year's growth will form a fine, symmetrical head. 

 If the removal of forks and the heading back of tall-growing 

 leaders be once or twice repeated afterward, the tree will easily 

 acquire the required umbrella shape, with the lower branches 

 spreading out nearly horizontally at a height of five to six feet 



