TOP-VVORKIXG TO SECURE WINTER APPLES. I43 



it. I planted it with the result that the tree died and all the grafts 

 died. 



Mr. Bracketf: Which would you prefer, scions taken from top- 

 worked trees or scions taken from trees not top-worked ? 



Prof. Hansen (S. D.) : I don't believe there would be enough 

 difference to count. 



Mr. Brackett : We have got to get healthy stock underneath for 

 top-grafting. I do not think it has any influence on the graft. If 

 you put on good, healthy stock, it will survive if the scion has not 

 been hurt by winter. We have to get healthy stock underneath. 



Mr. Kenney : I would like to ask him how it was that one 

 stock should bear a full crop when it killed out on all the rest of the 

 trees. I think the proper stock imparts hardiness to the graft. 



Mr. Brackett: I think the graft may be injured by the winter, 

 and if it was on its original stock, the old tree being injured the tree 

 would die. while if your graft was injured only and it was on strong 

 stock it might add to its hardiness. 



Mr. Kenney : Why should these trees of tlie Missing Link be 

 dead? I thought this Yellow Siberian was about the hardiest thing 

 I could find, and I thought the Virginia crab was about the best 

 thing on which I could put' tender varieties, but they all succumbed. 

 Why should they live on the Gould crab? This is an experiment 

 with me. 



Mr. Elliot : Does the Gould crab grow any more vigorously 

 than Yellow Siberian or the Virginia to graft on? 



Mr. Kenney : I should think it was about the same. The Gould 

 crab tree is forty-four or forty-five years old, and it has always 

 been quite hardy, but I thought the Yellow Siberian was the hardi- 

 est of all. 



Mr. Elliot : You think the union of your graft was about as 

 good on one tree as on the other? 



Mr. Kenney : I could see no difference. 



Mr. Elliot : I was at your place and saw some of your graft- 

 ing. Was the grafting at the end of the bough or in the top of the 

 tree? 



Mr. Kenney : At the end of the bough. I never like to cut off 

 large limbs to graft. 



Mr. Elliot: Why do you graft on the ends of the limbs? 



Mr. Kenney : So that if the graft should fail the tree would 

 grow right along and there would be no perceptible damage. 



Mr. Elliot : You never thought of another essential reason why 

 it should be done that way? 



Mr. Kenney : No, I don't know that I ever did. 



Mr. Elliot : I find this : in grafting growing trees, if I bend a 

 limb down I am inclined to think it will fruit earlier, and that is what 

 struck me as being a reason in that direction. In regard to the Gould 

 crab. I think if we could all know the conditions of everything we 

 would find there was a certain affinity between the stock and the 

 scion that was not in the other stock. 



Mr. O. W. Moore : That is what we want to work for. 



