396 State Horticultural Society. 



being any better when grown on his tree than that tree was growing. 

 But he claimed that it was a different kind of Porter ; was dead sure of 

 it, in fact. I grafted his tree, and while doing it I cut scions from the 

 tree and grafted them into a branch in the top of the tree, and when I 

 had finished the job I told him what I had done, and told him that if, 

 when the grafts commenced to bear, he could tell me which grafts came 

 from that tree, I would pay him back the money that he had paid me for 

 doing the work. In due time the grafts fruited, and he was unable to 

 distinguish one from another by any difference in size or quality of fruit. 

 This case of selection did not meet expectation. 



Improvement by selection must begin further back. It must com- 

 mence with the roots, or graft stock. Plant a large quantity of seeds and 

 bud the young trees thus produced that are growing under exactly the 

 same conditions, with the same variety, and select for graft stocks those 

 that show the best results and propagate them from their roots, until 

 scions can be obtained from such propagation to graft on roots of same. 

 When that is done, an improvement is already established. So much 

 depends on the stock and the conditions under which a tree is growing 

 that it is folly to expect that the extra fine quality of the fruit of a tree 

 growing under most favorable conditions can with certainty be perpet- 

 uated when worked on haphazard stocks, however favorable other con- 

 ditions may be. I have five choice seedling apples, and I shall propagate 

 them from their roots as well as from their tops, to make sure whether 

 they will do better on their own roots or on roots of some other variety. 

 To test old varieties where the original trees are gone, with this object 

 in view, I will say that cuttings from these can be rooted if properly pre- 

 pared, which will accomplish the same object or results. 



The importance of starting with a vigorous stock is well illustrated 

 by two apple stocks. One where the scion has very much outgrown the 

 stock, the other when the scion and stock are of about equal vigor. They 

 were growing in a nursery row quite near to eacli other under the same 

 conditions, and grafted to the same variety of apple. The first scion was 

 evidently not getting the nourishment it needed, and if it had been cov- 

 ered with earth at the union it would have put out roots of its own. — X, 

 B. White, Norfolk County, Mass., in American Gardening. 



APPLES THAT PAY. 



From an article by George T. Powell, an expert orchardist of Ghent, 

 N. Y., we quote as follows: In the planting of fruit upon a commercial 

 scale a number of important factors need to be taken into consideration 



