230 REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF HORTICULTURE. 



TOP -GRAFTING APPLE TREES. 



Ry Pkof. G. Harold Poweli,. 



Progressive apple growers are beginning to pay more attention to some 

 of the finer problems of apple culture, such as the relation of varieties to 

 pollination, their susceptibility to disease, the relative hardness of stocks, 

 the individuality of trees, and the careful selection of buds for propagation. 

 Incidental to the discussion of some of these latter subjects, a good deal is 

 heard nowadays about the top-working of apple trees. So far as the opera- 

 tion pertains to unprofitable trees that are to be reworked with more desir- 

 able kinds, the discussion is not new. But top-working the young orchard 

 after the trees have become thoroughly established, has other ends in view. 



TOP-WORKING YOUNG APPLE TREES. 



A few apple growers are planting a hardy, straight, vigorous-growing 

 variety as a stock on which to top-work the permanent kinds after the trees 

 are thoroughly established in the orchard. The Northern Spy has been the 

 principal stock for winter varieties in northern apple sections, and the Astra- 

 chan and Tallman Sweet have been freely used for the fall and summer kinds. 

 The Ben Davis and the Baldwin have been planted to a limited extent, but 

 their merits are not yet well determined. These trees are clean, straight, 

 vigorous growers, comparatively free from body diseases, and they grow into 

 uniform, pleasing trunks for the permanent orchard. 



The practice of top-working has some important advantages in commercial 

 orcharding. First, it pi-ovides a uniformly strong, healthy trunk for all 

 varieties, making many of them longer lived, corrects the crooked, gnarly 

 habit of some, overcomes the tenderness of desirable kinds that cannot 

 flourish on their own bodies in the far north, and sometimes, as when the 

 Spy is used, is said to make a stronger system of roots. Second, it gives 

 the grower a chance to select the buds or scions from trees of steady produc- 

 tiveness, with hardy foliage, with large, highly colored fruit, and with other 

 superior qualities. Third, it is said to hasten the fruitfulness of young- 

 orchards. 



SELECTING THE STOCK. 



The best stock on which to top-work the 3-oung orchard is a vigorous 

 variety, as rapid in growth or more so than the top, upright in habit, and 

 as free as possible from body diseases. The canker, the sun-scald, or any 

 other body trouble may cut off the orchard just at the beginning of its 

 profitable existence if a susceptible stock is planted. The King, the Twenty 

 Ounce, the Spitzenberg, the English Russet, and the Early Harvest are 

 included in this undesirable list, and others may be added in every apple- 



