34 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



moist ID the cellar. Process of grafting : Take a small piece 

 of the root about the size of the scion, and splice them 

 together, and tie with a string. In the spring they are planted 

 in the nursery. The reasons for this process are, trees can be 

 produced in less time, and the fruit thought to be more pure, 

 as it partakes less of the natural stock. 



We have before us a letter from one of the professors of 

 the Agricultural College at Amherst. He speaks in strong 

 terms of the necessity of increased attention to the cultiva- 

 tion of apples and of new varieties, and suggests the follow- 

 ing method of obtaining them, which is by planting seeds 

 from the best specimens of the best variety of ajDples. 



We have given our experience in a previous report on this 

 important subject, and it seems necessary in this connection 

 to publish it again. 



Several years ago we planted a nursery, hoping, if possible, 

 to obtain some new variety of valuable fruit. We planted it 

 with nearly all of the seeds of the Baldwin. Before budding, 

 wc selected about one hundred of the most thrifty, broad- 

 leaved, promising trees to remain, and come to bearing in 

 their natural state, the most of which were taken up, and 

 planted in another field for an orchard. They all came to 

 bearing. There was not a Baldwin, nor any one that resem- 

 bled it, among them. All could be improved by being 

 grafted with such varieties as we had. We would now in- 

 quire which is the best way of obtaining new varieties of 

 fruit, — wliether by planting the seeds of the best specimen 

 of the best variety of apples, or by cross-grafting. 



We have been repeatedly told that the subject on which 

 we have been writing belongs to the man of science, to the 

 pomologist, and not to the farmer. Now, we do not under- 

 value the opinion of the man of science ; but we woidd, with 

 the greatest modesty and candor, submit, who can judge the 

 most correctly, — the man who grafts the tree, who sees and 

 tastes the fruit, or the man of science who never saw the 

 tree, nor tasted its fruit? 



In regard to those nameless apples about which there has 

 been so much said, Mr. Currier tliinks they are the Red Rus- 

 set; and that variety, he thinks, i^i remarkable for its keeping 

 qualities under certain conditions described in his letter. 



Would it not be well, therefore, to give it a fair trial on 



