TOP-WORKING. 167 
nection, and I believe Prof. MacMillan’s idea is new to a large body 
of horticulturists. It certainly is to me. A study of the question 
in that light of pollination may give us some ideas of the difficulties 
we meet with in budding different varieties or grafting different 
varieties to make them grow. 
Mr. Brand: I have devoted considerable thought along that 
line that Mr. Lord brings out, and I had concluded that it was the 
amount of pollen that affects the character of the plant. Where 
there is a very limited amount of pollen applied to the other plant 
the breed is produced, but I think it is more likely to counteract all 
the characteristics of the mother in the fruit. There was one other 
point brought out in the paper, if I understood the language right, 
and that is where he says, “the practical part in this work is the 
_ congeniality of the varieties.” The idea being to get two varieties 
united so that the growth of the grafted variety is so perfect that it 
can hardly be told from one on its own roots. That is all right so 
far as the tree is concerned, but for the production of fruit a graft 
that is not so congenial as to make so well formed a tree and make 
so perfect a tree that you can scarcely see where the union is, will 
make a tree that will not produce so much fruit. The one that is 
perfectly congenial will go to wood, while the other will have a 
tendency to produce more fruit. We can make an apple tree grow 
without any grafting. If you give it the right degree of moisture 
and give your plant something to feed on you can raise an apple 
tree without any graft. In that case I do not think it would be as 
productive a tree as a grafted tree. I am growing some without 
grafts on their own roots. In grafting, and in top-grafting es- 
pecially, the tendency is to bring them to fruiting earlier, solely on 
account of the obstruction to the sap which causes them to ripen 
earlier. 
Mr. Dartt: The claim is very often made that top-grafting a variety 
on a hardy stock renders that variety more hardy. I have taken consider- 
able interest in that, and I have asked some very prominent growers, some 
that have top-grafted largely, that question, whether the grafting of a 
variety onto a hardy stock made the variety more hardy, and of the most 
prominent I have asked, Mr. Tuttle, of Baraboo, Wis., and Prof. Budd, of 
Ames, Ia., have answered that it did not. Then why are top-grafted trees 
more hardy than those that are not top-grafted? My belief is that it is 
simply because you get them up higher from the ground. That trees will 
live and stand top-grafting better than they will standing on their own roots. 
You get that variety higher from the ground. Mr. Outram in speaking of 
the weather the other day gave an illustration of the difference between the 
cold at the surface of the ground and at a distance from the ground. I have 
read that in basements where the cold air settles it is several degrees colder 
than is the temperature even three or four feet higher. The cold settling - 
to the ground, it will naturally be colder there, but a little distance from the 
ground it is warmer. That is the reason why it is always warmer on top of 
the hill than in the valley. I think that is the reason why grafted trees stand 
better. I had some experience with grafted Haas a good many years ago, 
' grafted in the fork three or four feet from the ground. We had a hard 
winter and that Haas graft killed out, and I concluded it was because I put 
it up so high. If I had had it down low it would have killed quicker. 
