STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 183 



Mr. Tuttle. Yes; the cooler you keep them the better. I gener- 

 ally enclose my cellar and keep it shut after the warm weather com- 

 mences; if we have pretty cold nights, I open it at that time and shut 

 it up in the day-time. 



A Member. Do you form a union by splicing the graft ? 



Mr. Tuttle. Yes, sir. 



Mr. Pearce. Did you ever graft without any string at all ? 



Mr. Tuttle. I have grafted without any string at all, and they grew 

 very well. I did it just for trial. The object of the string is to hold 

 the grafts in place. They are easily put out of place, and in packing 

 them some of them would move out of place, and it is merely to hold 

 them together that the string is used. They will grow together with 

 ordinary care. You must be careful not to disturb the union when 

 you are setting. 



A Member. Do you use any mulching? 



Mr. Tuttle. No, sir. The great thing is setting the grafts. There 

 are ten times as many lost in setting as in anything else. We have a 

 dibble that we press into the ground; we put the graft in and press up 

 the dirt so that the graft is set perfectly solid. 



Mr. Sias. I never undertook to graft either root grafts or top grafts 

 withe it wax until 1883. I learned that while on a visit to Mr. Tut- 

 tle's place; that was the first I heard of it— and since then I have 

 practiced it myself with satisfactory results. I will say, in regard to 

 sawdust I have always supposed that the sawdust, just as it came from 

 the saw was about the right degree of moisture; but it is frequently 

 thrown out of the mill, where the snow and rain gets on it, and is fre- 

 quently much too wet. That is all the difficulty I know of in regard 

 to keeping root grafts. 



Mr. Gould. I suppose the question was asked for the purpose of get- 

 ting information so that farmers would know how to raise trees from 

 root grafts. I will say as far as I can gather from my own experience 

 in the matter, that the grafts should be planted firmly in the ground; 

 that is, the bottom of the root should be planted in the earth. The 

 earth should be worked deeper than the bottom of the root; that is 

 very important, because if it comes on dry, down in the hard pan, thej'^ 

 are almost sure to die — would not live through July if there happens 

 to be a dry spell. When the grafts start in June, they should be 

 watched carefully to see that there are no little worms on the leaves; 

 if the leaves are touched, the worms will drop on the ground and it is 

 difficult to find them. There may be two or three of them about the 



