TOPWORKING THE APPLE. 149 



Mr. Philips: No, I have not; my observations have been on 

 the tops that are in si^ht and fill the barrels. 



Mr. Pearce: Do you believe where you cut a limb off your 

 graft, new roots come out and the old roots die? 



Mr. Philips: I don't know anything about that. 



Mr. Harris: Week before last I dug up a Russian apple tree 

 that I had purchased from Mr. Budd twelve to fifteen years 

 ago. and there was a dead limb on that tree, and I found the 

 root of that tree under that dead limb was dead clear up to the 

 trunk of the tree. That root was one and one-half inches in 

 diameter and was dead. I suppose all the roots were dead, 

 but the root that was right under the limb, right exactly under 

 the hmb I cut off, was clear dead and beginning to decay. 



Mr. Pearce: I have found this to be a fact, that the best 

 trees I have in my orchard are trees that have been mutilated. 



Mr. Richardson: I cut off the limb of a tree about two years 

 ago because it was in my way. The wound was healing over 

 nicely, but the root was dead to the trunk of the tree. 



Mr. Pearce: I was with Mr. Harris some years ago, and on 

 every tree he had topworked we found every root dead six 

 inches below the ground. Evfery time you put a graft in the 

 tree, if one limb is grafted the lower part dies and new roots 

 must put out. If you graft the whole tree, all the roots die and 

 new ones put out. Now I quit it. I have some samples of 

 trees here that I have grafted, and I never lose a root. If you 

 wish to see them. I will pass them around and let you examine 

 them. 



Mr. Wm. Somerville: That is not my experience. I hardly 

 can agree with Mr. Pearce that it will kill a tree to cut the top 

 off, because I have grafted trees, that is. stumps, where I cut 

 the whole top off. and where the stump was three or four 

 inches in diameter, and those trees are as good trees as I have 

 got on my place, and they have been grafted in that form. I 

 have cut the whole top off, and I have put in as many as six or 

 eight scions in the top of that stump, and if they grew I would 

 leave all grow the first summer, and then I would cut one by 

 one off, until I would leave but one of those scions to grow, and 

 I would put those others down to receive the sap so that I 

 would not have a dead place on the side of the stump. In my 

 orchard I can show you a number of trees where I have cut the 

 whole top off and stuck them full of scions, and they are just 

 as good as any other tree. 



