THE NURSERY. 17 



half, I care not which, to the Jonathan or Wine- 

 sap, and the other half to the Tetofski. After 

 three years we will dig them and find either of the 

 former system of roots diverging downward and in 

 side directions, while the latter has made a spike 

 tap root probably 5 to 8 feet long, or at least twice 

 as long as the height of the tree. 



It would be an anomaly if Nature should in this 

 instance fail to provide for just the roots she wanted 

 in case she was disturbed by an injury from an acci- 

 dent or otherwise. 



The inference is intended to be conveyed by him 

 that we should abandon root grafting and top work 

 instead. This is theory, entirely unsupported by 

 actual practice, and is a wholly unfit manner of 

 propagating the apple in the northwest. It is so 

 extremely impracticable as to verge closely on the 

 impossible. Any one who will can satisfy himself 

 upon this point by an experiment which is better 

 than all the theory one can formulate in a lifetime 

 devoted to it. This top working is the system 

 formerly pursued in the eastern states and the old 

 countries, in which the seeds of seedling trees 

 were planted where they were to grow and grafted 

 a year or two after at the ground surface or at 

 some point higher on the stock. There is no pos- 

 sible objection to this method where it can be suc- 

 cessfully done, but it is not better theoretically nor 

 practically than root grafting. 



Plant a row of apple seeds of 100 or more, let 

 the young trees stand in the ground over one 



