Care of Fruit Trees. 611 



with top-graft them. This top-grafting is sometimes profitable even 

 in old trees, although it is usually unsatisfactory at that time. 



In late years it has been observed that some varieties are com- 

 monly infertile with themselves ; that is, the pollen of one variety 

 is more or less impotent upon flowers of the same variety. The 

 subject is little understood and it is not yet safe to generalize upon 

 it ; but it is a good practice to plant varieties in alternate rows or 

 only two rows together, to insure free fertilization. Some of the 

 varieties of apples and pears which have been studied in this respect 

 (by Waite and Fairchild) are as follows : 



Apples. 



Varieties more or less self -sterile. — Bellfleur, Chenango, Graven- 

 stein, King, Spy, Norton Melon, Primate, Rambo, Ked Astrachan, 

 Koxbury Russet, Spitzenburgh, Talman Sweet. 



Varieties generally self-fertile. — Baldwin, Codlin, Greening. 



Pears. 



Varieties more or less self-sterile. — Anjou, Bartlett, Boussock, 

 Clairgeau, Clapp, Columbia, Easter, Gray, Doyenne, Howell, 

 Jones, Lawrence, Louise Bonnie, Mount Yernan, Sheldon, Souve- 

 nir du Congress, Supertin, Colonel Wilder, Winter Nelis, 



Varieties mostly self -fertile. — Angouleme, Bosc, Buffum, Diel, 

 Flemish Beauty, Kiefier, Le Conte, Manning Elizabeth, Seckel, 

 Tyson, White Doyenne. 



10. It is provable that many trees fail to hear because propagated 

 from unproductive trees. — We know that no two trees in any 

 orchard are alike, either in the amount of fruit which they bear or 

 in their vigor and habit of growth. Some are uniformly productive, 

 and some are uniformly unproductive. We know, too, that scions or 

 buds tend to reproduce the characters of the tree from which they 

 are taken. A gardener would never think of taking cuttings from 

 a rose bush or chrysanthemum or a carnation which does not bear 

 flowers. Why should a fruit-grower take scions from a tree which 

 he knows to be unprofitable ? 



The indiscriminate cutting of scions is too clumsy and inexact a 

 practice for these days, when we are trying to introduce scientific 

 methods into our farming. 1 am convinced that some trees can 

 not be made to bear by any amount of treatment. They are not 



