PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING 1L9 



Prof. Slaytoii: \\ liai we know is wortli a good »l(al hioit tbau any 

 of our theories, 1 believe. Now, Trof. Taft gave a liUle talk on this 

 subject last niglil. I wish liiiii to try this cxjicrinient — ^I may not live to 

 see it conchick'd, but 1 want him to graft a sour-apple tree. Select a long, 

 slim limb, one on which he can graft out fully three feet from any other, 

 and graft a decidedly sweet apple there. As quick as the scion starts, 1 

 desire him to cut olT every braudi for three feet, keo]) tliat limb clean, 

 letting the scion form a small lop on the end of the limb. Those sweet- 

 apple leaves will form the sap into sweet-apple cells, and the first year 

 will form an outside layer of wood under the bark the whole length of 

 that limb. I wisii him to be caicful that no buds grow on the limb and 

 keep the scion growing another year. The second year we have two 

 layers of annual growth of sweet-apple wood the w^hole length of that 

 limb. He may continue it another year and may run another one, so 

 as to have three or four layers of annual growth of sweet-ai)ple wood the 

 length of that limb that was originally sour-apple wood. I wish him to 

 then cut off the entire sweet-apple end. All the sweet-apple leaves of 

 course will go, those that have been forming sweet-apple sap to form the 

 layers of sweet-apple wood. Let him then cut off the end of the lirab 

 at least back a foot and a half, and have buds from under the barli back 

 there on the sweet-apple wood with a core of sour-apple wood on the 

 inside of it, and see what those branches will produce — whether they 

 will produce the sweet apples of the outside layer of wood, or the sour, 

 and see the experiment finished. I desire some of you nurserymen to 

 do something with a peach tree. Bud some peach, the Alexander or 

 something, down close to the ground, and keep it trimmed through the 

 lirst year's growth, so as to run it up three or four feet, as slim as you can 

 get it. Now we have a stem of, say, white peach. Tlie next fall cut 

 that off and bud it up two or tliree feet high. Bud it to one of the best 

 yellow, decidedly yellow, peaches you have. Let that grow about two 

 years and ])roduce layers of yellow-peach wood, annual layers of yellow- 

 peach wood down the whole length of that stock of white-peach wood 

 that forms the center or core of that stock. Now, cut it off down about 

 two feet lower, and permit buds to form on it and grow^ some kind of 

 peach. What kind of peach will we have, a yellow peach or a white one? 



Mr. Kellogg: Did you ever make that experiment yourself and get a 

 cross between the tw^o kinds? 



Mr. Slayton: We do not grow a sweet apple on a sour-apple tree, 

 usuallv. 



Mr. Kellogg: The only thing that comes from the ground is the min- 

 eral elements and the nitrogen, that would affect the leaves. I do not 

 believe you can ever get a cross in that way. 



Prof. Taft: The gentleman wishes me to try the effect of growing 

 sweet-apple wood around the branch of a sour-apjde tree. I wish to ask 

 him what kind of cells he thinks will form around this sour-apple wood? 



Mr. Slayton: That is what I want you to decide. The cells are cer- 

 tainly foruKMl by sweet-apple leaves. Prof. Taft: No. 



Mr. Slayton: They certainly are. There is no other leaf on that limb 

 or graft, as I suggested, no other leaf except sw'eet-apple, and if you 

 w'ill let the buds bear fruit they are going to bear sweet ap])les. All 

 those are sweet-apple leaves, and therefore all the sa]) that romf^s down 



