32 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



Another case we will refer to, equally strange as it may 

 seem, but from authority we have no reason to doubt. A 

 tree was grafted near the ground with Baldwin scions. It 

 grew up about four or five feet, then branched out, and 

 among those branches was one of the natural stock. We 

 saw the tree in September last. The natural fruit was a 

 small, sweet Russet, then ripe. The Baldwins were said to 

 be, when ripe, a little rusty, and of mild flavor. Many more 

 instances of like character can be named, and some that 

 seem much more strange ; but they are all peculiar cases, 

 and the like cannot be expected again, and are what we call 

 " sport," others call " freaks of nature." 



A farmer in Norwalk, Conn., writes in regard to apples, 

 that his experience is, that, to produce perfect fruit, the 

 stock must agree with the scion, and that trees budded in 

 the nursery are liable to bear imperfect fruit. He further 

 says that to graft a Zafe-keeping apple into an early stock 

 will produce a poor-keeping apple. 



We have before us a letter from a gentleman in Westford 

 who has a large orchard. He says, " There is a great differ- 

 ence in the appearance and quality of the same variety of 

 fruit, Avhich, in many instances, I cannot account for by dif- 

 ference of soil, location, or exposure : therefore I think the 

 natural stock must have some influence on the fruit of the 

 scion." The above is a fair representation of a large portion 

 of our fruit-growers. There are, however, many marked 

 cases that have come to our knowledge, some of which we 

 will notice. 



Reply of Mr. A. : We had a tree grafted with Baldwins. 

 The stock produced a sweet rusty apple : the produce of the 

 scion was a Baldwin some rusty, the flavor more mild than 

 Baldwins usually are. He further said they grafted scions 

 from a very sour-apple tree into a sweet stock. The fruit 

 it produced was a mild, pleasant apple, much more mild 

 than the fruit of the parent-tree, from which the scion was 

 taken. 



Mr. B. grafted Porter scions into an old tree Uiat pro- 

 duced sweet apples, red, and somewhat spotted. The fruit it 

 produced was a mild, pleasant Porter, showing red spots. 



Mr. C. grafted Baldwin scions into a tree that produced 

 early apples, and the product decayed early. Another tree 



