.292 



APPLES. 



FIG. 3 49.-Proper 

 form New Heads on Old Tr 



pruning unhappily have too many originals over the country 

 (Fig. 348). This most unsightly mode of trimming is often 

 adopted when a removal of the top by grafting is intended. 



Grafting New Tops on Old Trees. It often happens that 

 fruit on large trees is worthless, and it becomes an important 

 object to change the top by grafting or budding it with some 

 better variety. In this case, instead of cutting off large 

 branches and grafting them at once, 

 it is better to prune the top in part, 

 as shown by Fig. 349, which will 

 cause an emission of vigorous 

 shoots. These are then budded or 

 grafted with ease and success. And, 

 as the grafts gradually extend by 

 growth, the remainder of the top 

 may, by successive excisions, be en- 

 tirely removed. Where trees are 

 not too old, and the ground is kept 

 Pruning to cultivated, good-sized trees are thus 

 obtained much sooner than by set- 

 ting out young ones. 



To give a well-shaped head to such newly formed trees, and 

 to prevent the branches from shooting upward in a close body 

 near the centre of the tree, the old horizontal boughs should 

 be allowed to extend to a distance in each direction, while the 

 upright ones should be lopped. This is distinctly exhibited 

 in Fig. 349. 



The following judicious mode of renewing the old tops of 

 trees formerly regarded as worthless, was given by the late 

 George Olmsted, of Hartford, Conn., in the Horticulturist : 



" These trees I commenced grafting six years ago last spring. 

 I began on the tof, and grafted one-third of the tree each year. It 

 therefore required three years to complete the entire heads of 

 the trees. 



" I like this method better than any I have ever tried for 

 grafting large trees, as it gives the grafts a good opportunity 

 to get well started. Cutting off and grafting the top first 

 gives the grafts there the best possible chance, while the 

 necessary reduction of the top throws the sap into the remain- 

 ing side-branches, which fits them well for grafting the fol- 

 lowing year; and the third year, the lowest branches being 



