320 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



Undoubtedly winter varieties are those 

 that are paying best. 



The four varieties of apples that are re- 

 ceiving the most attention now are Bald- 

 wins, Ben Davis, Greenings, and Spys 

 As these varieties cover only the fall and 

 winter months, it is certainly not wise to 

 overlook entirely the early sorts, because 

 there must spring up a market for the 

 earlier sorts as soon as the others have got 

 the market securely. 



Top grafting has received a great deal 

 of attention this spring. The average 

 fafmer thinks there is some mystery about 

 grafting, so it is very gratifying this year 

 to find him amenable to culture on the 

 point. It is gratifying to discover how 

 many farmers are taking up grafting, for 

 where it has been put into practice it has 

 been eminently successful. One Ontario 

 farmer who had never grafted a tree in his 

 l"f-, after hearing Mr. McNeill's lecture 

 some time ago, top grafted a large num- 

 ber in his orchard, and his losses were 

 under 3 per cent, of the number grafted. 



Grafting should be made a part of every 

 boy's education. Notwithstanding all the 

 care the nurseryman can give to his stock, 

 serious mistakes will be made in the varie- 

 ties, and if for no other reason than that 

 every lad should know how to perform so 

 simple an operation as grafting. 



Trees have individualism just as animals 

 have, and for reasons that we cannot ex- 

 plain, one tree with apparently no better 



chance than another growing by its side, 

 of the same variety, will be prolific while 

 the other is comparatively barren. 



The best orchards of the future will be 

 those that are planted with some hardy 

 vigorous stock like our Tallman Sweet, or 

 Macmahon's White, and when these have 

 formed a stock ahead at two or three years 

 old they may be top grafted from selected 

 trees. 



As the nurseryman practices propaga- 

 tion he exercises no discrimination, be- 

 cause his cuttings are from productive and 

 non-productive trees alike, and more often 

 than not they are taken from trees that 

 have not come into bearing at all, conse- 

 quently he must perpetuate a good many 

 poor specimens. 



The man who top grafts has an oppor- 

 tunity to examine a thousand trees, and, 

 selecting the best can top graft his whole 

 orchard with the confident expectation of 

 having nearly all his trees approach very 

 near in merit that one in the thousand that 

 he selected for his grafting. 



One reason why top grafting cannot be 

 recommended to the average farmer indis- 

 criminately is that he cannot be always in- 

 duced to do the work in the proper time 

 or in the proper manner. He cannot al- 

 ways be trusted in the matter of selection. 

 And he is too a]>t to be careless and indif- 

 ferent, leaving the greater number of his 

 trees ungrafted to the serious detriment of 

 the svmme.trv of the orchard. 



t 



New York School of Agriculture and Horti- 

 culture. — Mr. G. F. Powell's work at Briar- 

 cliflf Manor, New York City, has already 

 been referred to in these pages. Practical 

 instruction is here given in all branches of 

 Agriculture and Horticulture, with accom- 



panying lectures and class room work. 

 Finding the acreage at BriarclifF too limited 

 for rapid development of the work, the 

 trustees have purchased over 400 acres of 

 land near Poughkeepsie for the permanent 

 establishment of the school. 



