1 6 THE NURSERY. 



other influences, as peaches are propagated the 

 same the world over. 



In this paper he says that, although the nursery- 

 men declare vehemently that root grafting is the 

 best, he (who is not a propagator, and has given 

 no great part of his life to exclusively horticult- 

 ural pursuits) is " confident" that they are wrong. 

 The nurserymen, who have given their lives to the 

 work, as specialists, who have read, studied and 

 experimented, have, in the north, all come to a 

 different conclusion, and are not only "confident" 

 that he is wrong but absolutely know it, and can 

 demonstrate it at any time. 



He also makes the statement, ' ' Tap roots are 

 indispensable for long life to orchard trees in 

 Nebraska." This may be true, and we do not 

 object to this except as it is intended to be his con- 

 clusion that a root grafted tree has no tap roots, 

 which is an error. He also says that his theory is 

 rebutted by some who declare that some varieties 

 have no tap roots; naming the Jonathan. He 

 answers that there never was but one original Jon- 

 athan, and that no one can tell whether it had a 

 tap root or not. This is an error. Show me the 

 roots of the Jonathan of to-day, propagated in any 

 manner whatever, grown under the same condi- 

 tions as surround the parent tree, and I will show 

 you a type of the roots of the original tree. The 

 top controls every characteristic of the roots, 

 except identity. I y et its take a common seedling 

 and make two root grafts of it; we will give one- 



