TOPWORKING THE APPLE. 151 



I thought it might leave a wrong impression, that I sold so 

 mauy bushels of apples. 



Pres. Underwood: Are there any other questions on this 

 topic? 



Mr. Wedge: What time of the year should this topworking 

 be done ? 



Mr. Pearce: It should be done in the spring when the growth 

 keeps right along. Topworking can be done from early spring 

 until June. 



'Mv. Philips: I use the Virginia crab — I like to have about 

 four limbs for a head; I prefer that to more. I bud the trees in 

 August, and then in the spring I examine them, and usually 

 sixty per cent of them live. I leave them until they grow a 

 little, and then I cut the limbs off. The bud takes possession, 

 and in the fall it will heal over. 



Pres. Underwood: You prefer to bud the limbs rather than 

 the body? 



Mr. Philips: Yes, I prefer to work in the limbs rather than 

 in the body. The point in topworking the Virginia crab is to 

 have a horizontal limb; then the tree will not split down. 



Mr. Brackett: You bud instead of graft? 



Mr. Philips: I bud as many as I graft. I did do some whip 

 grafting, but I do not get as good and thrifty a growth as by a 

 cleft graft. 



Pres. Underwood: What is the Virginia crab? 



Mr. Philips: I guess you have asked me a question I cannot 

 answer. I think the first man who introduced it here was Mr. 

 Grimes. I was at Mr. Lord's ten years ago, and we were talk- 

 ing about topworking. He said he had a letter on topworking 

 from N. K. Fluke, of Iowa, and he read the letter to me, and I 

 could not have better expressed my views on the subject than 

 he did in that letter on topworking. It is about fifteen years ago 

 since I commenced topworking the Virginia, and I have fol- 

 lowed it up. Mr. Pearce says he has given it up. I am more 

 impressed with its value than I ever was. I do not know of 

 any way in which I can leave my boys a better orchard. 



Col. Stevens: The Virginia crab was introduced into Min- 

 nesota from Illinois, and into Illinois from Virginia. It was 

 brought from Virginia about forty years ago. I have a history 

 of the tree; I think it was published. It was not a wild crab 

 tree by any means. It was a seedling of an apple, not a crab, 

 that grew in the hilly country of Virginia. 



Mr. Philips: Prof. Budd thinks it is the wild crab of Russia. 



