256 TRANSACTIONS OF THE HORTICULTURAL 



TOP-GRAFTING THE APPLE. 



BY J. V. COTTA. LANARK. 



Mr. President (in<l Members of the Horticidtural Society of Norf/icni 

 lUinois: 



Perhaps there is no topic of horticulture upf)n which the earnest, 

 practical orchardist, as well as the farmers of the northwest, feels a 

 greater solicitude at the present time, than in the fntnre prospect of 

 the apple as a relia]>le market and family fruit. Our trees are at 

 best but short-lived, and though other agencies are continuously at 

 Avork to hasten their destruction, the primary cause of the mischief 

 can only be attributed to their want of hardiness under the trying 

 vicissitudes of our climate. Well nigh half a century has passed 

 away since the first attempts at orcharding were made by the early 

 pioneers of this great prairie region, and to-day we find ourselves 

 face to face with the stern fact that our successes have been few and 

 our failures have been many. 



Much good advice has been given for years, and much very bad 

 advice too, in the agricultural press, in essays and other papers pub- 

 lished in the transactions of horticultural societies and elsewhere, by 

 men, well-meaning and honest, no doubt, in their opinions, and by 

 men. too. of considerable experience, as to how the many injuries 

 our trees are subject to may be prevented: but as a rule too much is 

 expected by the advocates of the different ideas they represent. So 

 we have, for example, the advocates of low heads and of high heads, 

 or of close planting for protection: others expect by a leaning of 

 the trees toward the one- or two-o'clock sun they will obviate the 

 difficulty: still others advise chalking the trees when taking them 

 up so as to mark the point of compass, that they may be set out 

 again the same way: others again would not prune; others not cul- 

 tivate to induce slow growth: some lay great stress upon early culti- 

 vation only, and the letting the weeds grow the later part of the 

 season for protection: the setting up boards to prevent the sun 

 shining on the bodies is advised by some, or the setting up cornstalks 

 against the stems; a long scion and a short root is claimed by some 

 as a preventive of root-killing; again others attempt to fix the whole 

 question by mulching: while .there are those who attribute the 

 whole trouble to the presence of bacteria in the atmosphere, believ- 

 ing that the dead blotches of bark and dead wood on the stems are 

 caused by those infinitesimal organisms, when they should know that 

 after the injury is done by climatic agencies, the deceased parts are 

 attacked by those little creatures only to hasten the decomposition 

 of the affected part. But enough of these theories. 



The fact is, the above are all non-essentials in this question, and 

 while some of them are of sufficient importance to merit adequate 



