MICHIGAN" STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 421 



The true method, as I conceive, of drafting any tree, and 

 that will ultimately do away, no doubt, with the questionable 

 practice of using the quince, thorn, mountain ash, or any for- 

 eign root for the pear, is that of root-prinmig ; and a brief 

 statement of the way in which I have induced fruitfulness in 

 apple trees that were tardy in coming into bearing, will give 

 my idea of the proper manner of performing the operation. 



The first dozen Northern Spy apple trees that I planted did 

 not bear a bushel to the tree until they stood thirteen years, 

 when they gave a crop of ten bushels each. 



Later I planted twenty-five or more of this variety. After 

 they had stood six years, I root-pruned them thoroughly, by 

 digging a trench three feet from the tree, and two feet deep, 

 cutting off all the roots. The trench was refilled, the ground 

 cultivated, and the following year those trees bore a full crop, 

 and have borne as well, at least, as the older trees since, — some 

 ten years or more. 



As casting some light upon this question, and affording a 

 possible clue to the cause of the greater measure of success 

 that seems to attend the cultivation of the pear on the quince 

 at the East than at the West, I will say that here, as a rule, 

 the quince does not fully endure our climate, being killed 

 back, more or less, almost every winter. And what facts or 

 analogies have we, to lead us to believe that the root of a tree 

 will be hardy in a climate where the top is not ? I have had 

 the quince on my place twenty years, but it has never borne. 

 There is here and there a locality where quinces are grown to 

 some extent, but it is a fruit not generally successful in our 

 soil and climate. 



I find that across the lake, in the still more trying region of 

 Wisconsin, some fruit-growers are becoming enthusiastic over 

 the promise of the mountain ash as a stock for the pear^ 

 This has the advantage of hardiness, in any situation where 

 any fruit will grow ; but still I have grave doubts of its being 

 equal to the roots native to the pear. 



