THE HANDLING AND MARKETING OF APPLES. 453 



Virginia is as vig-orous as any of them. I dug up two trees of four 

 year old Virginia and two of four year old Wealthy, and the Vir- 

 ginia had almost double the root system of the Wealthy, I think it 

 is the strength and vigor of the stock that does it. I don't think 

 the size has anything to do with it. 



Mr. Patten (Iowa) : Was that the largest apple on the tree? 



Mr. Philips : I think it was. I never knew a case where a man 

 didn't take the largest apple to a show. (Laughter.) 



Mr. Patten : Might not a top-worked tree when young produce 

 bigger apples than when it becomes older? 



Mr. Philips : Well, that is a good question. A young chap is 

 expected to do more than old fellows like Harrison and I. (Laugh- 

 ter.) Not always, but sometimes anyway. 



Mr. Kellogg: State the conditions and the influence of top- 

 working in the Wausau orchard. 



Mr. Philips : I stated that tbe other day. There are varieties 

 there that will do much better top-worked than they will on their 

 own roots. 



Mr. Busse : Did you see any difficulty in regard to blight 

 whether they were top-worked on their own roots? I grafted some 

 three years ago, and I would like to know what the results are going 

 to be. 



Mr. Philips : We had some varieties that never blighted on the 

 Virginia crab. I put some of those varieties on the Hibernal and 

 changed the blood, which has an influence on the top. 



Mr. O. F. Brand : I had considerable experience in top-grafting 

 a good many years ago, beginning in 1868 and 1870, and a good 

 many varieties were top-grafted in 1873. All the varieties top- 

 grafted prior to 1873 winter-killed that winter. That is my recol- 

 lection. But I did a lot of it in 1873-4-5 on seedling crabs, on 

 seedlings from unknown seeds and seedlings of the Transcendent 

 and Hyslop crabs, and the Wealthy I top-worked on the Siber- 

 ian crab, that bears this little, long stemmed yellow crab. They did 

 first rate until 1884 — the spring of 1884 — and in the spring of 1885 

 tbey were all dead. I remember picking from one limb of the Utter 

 Red, top-grafted — I have the old tree in sod land — I remember 

 picking in 1882 a bushel and a half of apples from that one limb. 

 That limb was dead in 1885. The tree is not dead. There I had 

 that top-grafted tree worked with Malinda, Hyslop and Transcen- 

 dent worked with Malinda, and they made a perfect union, but tbe 

 top and stock were dead in the spring of 1885. That gave me an 

 idea that the graft had an influence upon the stock and certainly 

 weakened it so it killed it. Those other Transcendent and Hyslop 

 crabs that were not top-grafted did not kill that winter. 



As to the different varieties being increased in size by top-graft- 

 ing, I know a great many seedlings are increased to double the size, 

 sometimes more than double, by top-grafting. But there are some 

 varieties that do not seem to be changed at all in size, and one of 

 those is the Malinda. I have got more fruit this year from my Ma- 

 linda trees than from all the other grafted varieties. We have about 



