STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 179 



I will give them credit for being as honest a set of men as there are, 

 but I think trees are better top-worked on old stocks. 



Mr. M. L. Dunlap — As a gentleman has been mentioned who could 

 not be here, it may be well enough to put in a word to explain this 

 matter. It may be that Mr. Phoenix has a number of trees stock- 

 grafted. Nurseiymen will often find that there are certain varieties 

 not good bearers. Xow, Mr. Phoenix has a very large nursery, but 

 not a large oi'chard, and he is always trying to get good varieties, but 

 he sometimes fails, and then he does the best he can with them. 



Mr. Murtfeldt — I Avant to sa}- nothing against Mr. Phoenix ; but 

 that was the particular oi'chai'd which I remember having seen. 



Dr. Schroeder — I am acquainted with Mr. Phoenix's nursery. At 

 the time he planted his orchard the wholesale manufacture of the 

 things — that is, the little root grafts — was just started. I do not 

 think he was rigged out at the time for the factory business as he is 

 now. Now as to this top-grafting, I have lived on the oldest orchard 

 in Illinois, and I just tell you the trees are sound and healthy, except 

 as 1 told you about the bark lice, and I could not get them off. This 

 year I did my best, and they bore in abundance. Another lot Avhich 

 were root-grafted did not do it. I am an observer ; I look here and 

 there and everywhere. I know I do not have to live very long, and 

 I think to take up a good deal of knowledge — as much as I can get 

 here — before I go awa}'. Now that is my observation — the top 

 grafts bear the best, and they are the oldest trees. I do not know 

 if the lice business has something to do with it — perhaps it has. 



Mr. Brj'ant — I have been a nurseryman for 20 years, and I do not 

 Avant it to be understood that the mode of propagation is the cause 

 of the short life of trees. I adopted the notion that stock-grafted 

 trees were more hardy than root-grafted trees, but experience has 

 shown me that there is no difference whether they are stock-grafted 

 or root-grafted. Properly cultivated, without stimulating too much, 

 they will live as long one way as the other. In the winter of 1855-6 

 I had stock-grafted trees that were destroyed, while root-grafted 

 trees escaped. 



