yo THE CONNECTICUT POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



To]' Working Young Trees. 



^^'ith regard to top working young trees, most New 

 -York growers are not over enthusiastic at the present time. 

 In theory it seems to be a g-ood idea, but when it comes to 

 practice, it has not worked well in many cases. A single il- 

 lustration will suffice to show one of many things which may 

 happen. The orchard was set in the spring of 1907. Most 

 varieties were set as ultimately desired, but in one small 

 block Spy stock was used, the owner intending to top work. 'He 

 did so by body grafting the following spring. Bud moths 

 were very plentiftil. Result — Less than one quarter of the 

 graft made a good stand. The process of top working was 

 continued from time to time, until in the spring of 1911 — 

 one-third of tlie trees in the block were pulled out and re- 

 placed witli new trees of the variety desired. In tbe mean- 

 time, other trees set at the time of the original planting and 

 not top worked have become splendid specimens, and pro- 

 duced in many cases in 1910 and 1911 from thirty to forty 

 apples each. Whip grafting was not employed in this or- 

 chard. Some growers are meeting with good success by us- 

 ing this method. The writer secured over ninety-five suc- 

 cessful stands in one orchard b\' budding two hundred 

 northwestern Greenings, inserting the bud high in the 

 trunk. Where the bud failed to succeed, the trees were in 

 no way injured and can be grafted in the branches at any 

 time now. 



Pretty much all the young orchards are being set with 

 fillers. In the peach growing sections, peach trees are used 

 extensively, and with splendid success, notwithstanding the 

 advice of many good men. In the Hilton district, where 

 peach fillers are used very extensi^■ely, there are man}- young 

 orchards four, five and six years of age, with the apple trees 

 in the very best condition, already beginning to put on fruit 

 in commercial fjuantities, while the peach trees have been 

 carrying the expense of the orchard since the third or fourth 

 years, and after that making good profit for the owner. In 

 one block of two and one-half acres, where the owner has 



