STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 79 



Stark, whose best recoininendations are that the trees are hardy and 

 productive, and that the fruit keeps well, and, like the razors in the story, 

 is "good to sell." 



The theor}' quite prevalent fifteen or twenty years ago, that root- 

 grafted trees are less hardy and productive than those " top-grafted," 

 seems to have quite generally yielded to the stubborn facts, which appear 

 in almost every old orchard in riie State, that variations in the health of 

 any variety are as often in favor of one as the other of these classes of 

 trees, and that the earlier productiveness of a variety by top-grafting is 

 generally transient, resulting, as is well known, from a less complete, 

 immediate union between stock and graft, and a consequent check or 

 interruption in the circulation of sap, such interruptions always inducing 

 the formation of fruit buds. Since, therefore, this earlier fruiting of 

 top-worked trees is ordinarily but temporary, and at the expense of 

 vigorous growth and development of the tree, no decided advantage can 

 be claimed for it. 



The practice of growing trees closely together (often as near as six or 

 eight inches) in the nursery rows, and pruning them to single, naked 

 stems to the height of four or five feet, is sure to produce that class of 

 slender trees called "whip-stock trees," or "switches" — a class on which 

 the "dealers" in trees make the most money, as a five or six feet tree of 

 this kind weighs but a few ounces, and will pack in a small compass. 

 Such trees, when planted in the orchard, are easily swayed about by the 

 winds, not only because they ai"e slender and top-heavy, but because 

 they have less roots than those whose side branches have been allowed 

 to grow. The lateral shoots always give size and strength to the trunk, 

 and induce a corresponding growth of lateral roots, so necessary for 

 holding the tree firmly in an upright position, as well as to furnish food 

 for its growth. 



These tall, slender trees, when planted in the orchard, soon become 

 permanentlv leaned toward the northeast. Thus the naked trunks are 

 exposed to the vertical rays of the sun at that time in the day when its 

 beams have the gi-eatest heating power. In a few years dead strips of 

 bark upon the southwest sides of these stems show that the work of 

 death is already begun. The borers and the bark lice are always ready 

 to aid in the work of destruction, and the trees are doomed to premature 

 fruitfulness, and premature decay. 



I doubt not that I have seen this year in the orchards of the northern, 

 central, and western portions of the State a sufficient number of apple 

 trees to have cost Jifty thousand dollars that are now in this condition, 

 but which would have been healthy, if they had not been too closely 

 planted and improperly pruned, while in the nurseries. I have also seen, 

 in the northern part of the State, trees of the Jersey Sweet, one of our 

 most tender varieties, that were healthy and productive, having been 

 made so by proper care and training. Trees grown with " stocky" stems 

 and low heads have a foundation laid for a long life of usefulness, and 

 are well worth seeking out, and purchasing at almost any price. It is 

 doubtful who are most in fault, that the best of trees are not planted, 



