28 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 



MR. HATHAWAY'S prediction. 



I am happy to inform you that I am not alone in the pursuit of this sub- 

 ject. Mr. Benjamin Hathaway of Little Prairie Ronde, an old nursery- 

 man of nearly fifty years' experience, a farmer, horticulturist, a forester, a 

 gentleman of wide fame in the state, forsaw the impending disaster to the 

 fruitgrowing interests of all the west, from this cause alone, and at the 

 first meeting of the Northwestern Fruitgrowers' association, held in 

 Chicago, gave the first note of warning and presented to the members of 

 that meeting the facts of his experience. He then and there prophesied 

 that " Before twenty years should go by, the unwisdom — not to say the 

 criminal folly— of the almost universal method of root-grafts, would be 

 made plain to the dullest comprehension." He went further, and said: 

 " If there are any who are disposed to cavil, and say I put it too strong, 

 let them come with me and go through a score or two of orchards in Cass 

 county that I know all about. I will point them to trees, both of the same 

 variety, one a root-graft the other a top-graft, the first of which has not 

 borne one fourth the apples of the other since they were set out, thirty or 

 forty years ago. And these are not isolated cases, but are the universal 

 experience in all this region, where there has been a fair opportunity for 

 comparison." 



VALUE OF DOUBLE- WORKING. 



I am proud to be able to quote the valuable experience of the above 

 named gentleman, whom I have had the pleasure of meeting, to more fully 

 substantiate some of the principles involved in this important question, 

 especially of the double-working of our tender varieties and feeble grow- 

 ers on what I call a uniform standard stock, as the Lyscom, Talman Sweet, 

 Northern Spy, etc., and never upon seedlings, even as a gift. Never upon 

 seedlings, for they are not uniform in growth and development, some of 

 them being dwarfish in their habit and as tender as a peach. 



My experience in top-grafting the Red Canada on seedlings has not been 

 satisfactory in the orchard or nursery — I think it is the least so of any 

 variety. There is not a proper afiinity or assimilation between stock and 

 graft, consequently they are not uniform in growth, while a large 

 percentage of them is worthless. This variety, root-grafted in the 

 nursery, is very feeble, while not one tenth of them are merchantable. 

 This is why all practical fruitgrowers recommend top-grafting the Red 

 Canada under all circumstances, not so much to make it hardy as to make 

 it strong and vigorous, for this variety is of itself quite hardy. Nursery- 

 men, as a rule, will not grow it; and allow me to say, in all candor and 

 courtesy, the individual who insists in ordering them root-grafted is not 

 wise, and some have found it out to their sorrow. 



This plan of double-working tender varieties and feeble growers on a 

 hardy and vigorous stock, is the only method that holds out any promise 

 of success to the future fruitgrowers of Michigan, even in the more favored 

 parts of the state. 



Some may urge that this system of top-grafting is unjust to nursery- 

 men. It is not altogether so, for no one knows the facts better than they, 

 and most of them know how to guard against them, and will do so, I am 

 bold to say, if you as i^urchasers are willing to pay the extra expense and 

 cost of propagation. 



