424 MISSOURI STATE UORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



no medicine himself but apples and abstinence whenever he felt out 

 of sorts. Sweet apples are more nutritive and more grateful to a ten- 

 der stomach than sour, and comparatively few know how excellent 

 many sorts are, cut, sliced and baked. Baking imparts a much better 

 flavor than stewing. Some years ago I planted an avenue line with 

 that exceptionally erect and handsome grower, the Winter Sweet Par- 

 adise — a sort which carries its heavy and regular crops well in the in- 

 terior of its stately head, and so it is not bent out of shape by the 

 weight. I began to think I had too much fruit of that particular sort, 

 but find them so good, after being an hour in the oven, that I value 

 them more than ever, and I can readily sell any superabundance in 

 this region of mines and works. G. 



Tyrone, Penn. 



SOIL AND FRUIT. 



It is thought by some experienced fruit growers that the kind of 

 soil has much to do with the quality of the fruit, and especially with 

 the keeping qualities of apples. This maybe true, and in selecting: 

 sites for the orchard this should be kept in mind, and the selection 

 made with reference to the production of the finest fruit. 



As a nurseryman and orchardist of long experience, I have been 

 often disappointed in trying to get specimens quickly by top grafting 

 on old trees. Not always, but generally, I have got specimens from 

 the young trees quite as soon as from the grafts. But I have found 

 exceptions enough to show how the belief has come about. If we top- 

 graft a variety that is late in coming to bearing when root-grafted or 

 budded on small seedlings, and do this top-grafting upon a variety 

 that ripens up its wood and stops growing quite early in the season^ 

 the scion will be forced into the same habit, since it must stop growing 

 when the sap stops coming. Even this cannot be said without a little 

 qualification, because the leaves of a late growing scion on an early 

 maturing tree will keep green longer than the rest of the tree. But 

 as poor Josh Billings said of laziness, that there is no cure for it, yet a 

 second wife will hurry it a little, so a scion on such a tree will be 

 checked enough to form fruit buds quicker than on a tree maturing 

 later. Thus I find that the late-bearing Prolific Sweeting bears much, 

 earlier top grafted on the Tetofsky, but I am suie that the Tetofsky 

 top-grafted on a Prolific Sweeting would not bear so soon as a root- 

 grafted Tetofsky. 



Here, I think, is the source of error in this matter. When people 

 have grafted a late bearing and late growing scion on to an early ma- 



