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TOP-WORKING. 165 
Top-grafting will never be a reasonable success until it is fully considered 
and determined with many, many varieties, and here, as before said, is work 
for the experiment stations. 
To illustrate: The Fameuse can control successfully so much, and no 
more, of the stock of a Virginia crab or Duchess of Oldenburg. Give it 
more of the stock, and the top will gradually dwarf and die; give it too little, 
and it will gradually starve the root until the tree fails for lack of nourish- 
ment. 
I wish that the importance of this point might be fully impressed. 
Varieties that are too uncongenial should never be used, for they will almost 
always produce short lived trees. 
The harmonies of plant unions are sometimes wonderful. Oftentimes the 
nurseryman notices a single tree in the row that at three or four years old is 
two to four times as large as other trees on either side of it, all having had 
an equal chance. Whence the difference? Again unite two varieties in 
top-working, and they will not unite, only granulate, and finally dwarf and 
blow apart. 
The writer once budded some of his North Star on two year old Duchess 
trees at the collar. They grew very finely for five or six years and then 
began to sicken and die, and in a few years more were all dead, while root- 
grafts of the same variety continued to flourish and grow with great vigor. 
In some cases the stock will over-grow the scion, and after twelve or 
fifteen years the side limbs will weaken and die. But in most cases the 
graft will not outgrow the stock. If the proper balance has not been se- 
cured, the root will be prematurely ripened and starved. In either case the 
tree is but short lived and dies, probably by strangulation. In most cases 
where top-working is a failure had the scion been inserted in the body of 
the tree two to two and one-half feet from the ground the union would have 
been perfect, and a good tree the result. 
If the graft ultimately overgrows the stock a little it will probably be for 
the benefit of the tree, as it wiil tend to thorough maturity of both top and 
root. 
When trees are top-worked they should be cultivated into a, vigorous 
growth, the first year or two especially, as that will insure a smooth union 
if stock and scion are at all congenial. 
Thrifty young trees are, of course, more successfully worked than old 
ones, though the tops on large trees in the orchard can be partially removed 
one year and grafted the next. 
Transcendent is an excellent stock for Wolf River and Wealthy at two 
or three feet from the ground. It is quite probable that this tree has been 
overlooked as a stock for the north. The Fall Orange will do finely on this 
stock. 
I would suggest a thorough trial of the Sweet Russet and Minnesota. 
They are both strongly stamped with the apple cross in them. Both are 
hardy and free from blight, and the latter is free in wood. Both are likely 
to be a success when grafted in the limbs also. 
If any apple unites perfectly in the limbs of some hardy sort, it is prob- 
ably best to graft there, but in general it makes but little difference in the 
_ value of the tree whether it is grafted in the stem or limbs, so that the 
equilibrium of influence is maintained. Definite knowledge can only be 
reached by actual experiments. To illustrate: On one occasion I grafted 
Pink Anis onto about a two foot stem of Hibernal; at the same time this 
