164 HORTICULTURE, FORESTRY, FLORICULTURE 



and it is especially useful in testing new varieties by bringing them 

 into early bearing by top working them into bearing trees. 



There are many varieties of orchard fruits desirable for com- 

 mercial orchards or for domestic use that are lacking in hardiness 

 or vigor. The trees may be susceptible to sunscald or to insect 

 troubles, and are short-lived and unproductive when propagated in 

 the usual manner. With a view to correcting these difficulties, 

 orchards are sometimes planted with a single hardy, vigorous, 

 straight-growing, long-lived variety. A year later, or as soon as tho 

 trees are well established and growing strongly, selected buds of 

 the permanent varieties are grafted or budded in the body or branches, 

 and the original tops are removed as soon as the new buds start into 

 growth. This method of establishing an orchard by double working 

 is growing in favor, especially with apple growers who wish to provide 

 some desirable quality through the stock not found in the body of the 

 permanent variety, or to grow an orchard from buds taken from 

 trees of superior merit. 



To Modify Vigor. There is a nice balance between the roots, 

 the stem or body, and the top of the tree, and each part has a strong 

 influence on the vigor of the other two. The slow-growing quince 

 root, the doucin and paradise apple, and the mahaleb cherry and sand 

 cherry reduce the normal vigor of the pears, the apples, the cherries, 

 and the plums worked upon them, and make dwarfing or semidwarf- 

 ing possible. The Northern Spy, Ben Davis, and Fallawater apples, 

 all strong-growing varieties, develop an unusually vigorous root sys- 

 tem in the stocks on which they are worked. In a similar way a 

 strong-growing body invigorates both the top and root systems of the 

 tree. The Jonathan, Wealthy, Oldenburg, Esopus, and Red Canada 

 apples are thrifty but of slender growth, and all of them partake of 

 the vigor of Northern Spy when top-worked on it. 



In a similar manner the slender-growing cherries are made 

 stronger when worked on the vigorous mazzard stocks. Pears are in- 

 vigorated when worked on stronger growing bodies, and it is a com- 

 mon practice in some nurseries to double-work slender-growing va- 

 rieties like Bosc, Winter Nelis, Barry, Wilder, and Danas Hovey on 

 strong-growing bodies like Kieffer or Bartlett. Slender-growing 

 plums, like Lincoln, are greatly strengthened when top-worked on 

 the vigorous Marianna, and the Japanese chestnut is invigorated 

 when worked on the American species. 



Top working therefore becomes an important factor in making 

 slender and weak-growing but otherwise desirable varieties of greater 

 value. A striking example of the influence of a strong stock on a 

 less vigorous variety is found in the Red Canada apple, which, under 

 the name Steele's Red Winter, was extensively worked on seedling 

 stocks in Wayne County, Mich., in the early history of apple grow- 

 ing there, sixty-five or seventy years ago. Under these conditions 

 the variety was vigorous, prolific, a long keeper, and popular in the 

 markets of the West. It was therefore propagated widely in the 

 nurseries, but, when grown upon its own body, the trees were slow 

 and weak in growth. For this reason the variety when 



