202 



ANNUAL REPORT. 



we have. I have seedlings crossed with the crab, sweet and sour, very 

 nice ones, but still we can never make the crab apple take the place of 

 the common apple as a market apple. You may raise all the crabs you 

 wish, and no matter how good the quality, people will buy their apples 

 from the Baldwins and Greenings. 



Mr. Smith. Somebody said there wasn't any difference whether 

 you planted root grafts or transplanted them when two or three years 

 old. That is a question that is of importance to farmers, and I think 

 there is a vast difference if grown by them; I think Mr. Kellogg's 

 views are correct. A good root graft is worth in the market about 

 one cent put up in good condition. Farmers throughout this State 

 have been paying twenty-five cents up to a dollar apiece for trees that 

 were not worth as much for them to plant as the root grafts would be. 

 Many of them, if they knew how to plant root grafts would doit, their 

 boys would do it, and I think it is very important for the best interests 

 of farmers that this question should be thoroughly answered. JSow, 

 in regard to tying, the nicest thing to use is to unravel an old stocking 

 leg and use the yarn. One end of the yarn is fastened at the top of 

 the graft and then wound around. Mr. Sias says they will all die. 

 They fail of course, from careless handling, and you have to handle 

 them more carefully than you do eggs. If you break them apart after 

 they have been knit together, they are very likely never to unite again. 

 The ground should be worked at least two inches deeper than you 

 expect to set the plants. 



Another reason why farmers do not make a success with root grafts 

 is that nine times out of ten they take the plants out under a burning 

 sun into a warm place and set them out; they may be exposed perhaps 

 for two hours to a hot sun where the heat is so intense that perhaps 

 ten minutes' exposure will turn them brown. If I were to advise how 

 to handle grafts I would recommend to take them to the cellar, into 

 the shade, or to th^ north side of the house, without allowing the sun 

 to shine or the wind to blow on them; careful handling will insure 

 success. I verily believe that to get an orchard cheaply and surely it 

 would be better for a man to get these root grafts than to set three and 

 four year old trees, 



Mr. Pearce. I have no objection to the farmers setting out root 

 grafts, but there is objection to setting them out in the orchard at 

 once. If they will take the root grafts and set them out in rows and 

 cultivate them, they will soon have them ready for transplanting, and 

 will succeed in growing them. I can see no objections to farmers set- 

 ting out root grafts if they will take care of them. 



