No. 4.] FRUIT CULTURE. 239 



the conditions to put into the apple the finest quality of 

 any section of our country. The King I will mention as 

 an apple of high quality, and yet I should not recommend 

 any one to plant it, because it is a tree that is constitu- 

 tionally weak, will not live beyond twelve or fifteen years, 

 and is especially affected by canker and other diseases, it 

 would be ill advice to any one to plant it ; and yet there is 

 no apple that sells in the English market, except the New- 

 town Pippin, that brings so high a value as the Tompkins 

 County King. It has been my desire to grow the King, 

 and I am growing it to-day, because of its value, its tine 

 quality. The great demand for it has put me in the chan- 

 nel of working, studying and thinking along the line of 

 tree breeding, and how I should arrive at the method. 



A number of years ago, I had more time to prune trees 

 than I have to-day, a work that I always enjoj^ed ; and 

 nothing would please me more than to spend two or three 

 hours every day of my life pruning trees. Unfortunately, 

 I cannot get the time to get to the apple trees as I would 

 like to ; but when I had more hours to spend in the orchard 

 I made this discovery, — that when I pruned trees such as 

 Greenings and Baldwins, it was comparatively easy work, 

 but when it came to the Spy, it was entirely different. I 

 found I could get tired in two hours, and if I pruned North- 

 ern Spies all day, I was considerably tired. AVhat is the 

 difference ? The wood of the Northern Spy tree is tough, 

 of fine grain, and hard, and when you saw the wood it is 

 like sawing through steel. Realizing this difference in the 

 wood, while sawing upon the hard wood of the Spy, the 

 thought came to me, what would be the effect of transfer- 

 ring King buds or scions to the Spy stock ; and the longer 

 I sawed the harder I thought on the subject, and I re- 

 solved to plant a King orchard in this way. From the nur- 

 sery I selected one hundred trees of Northern Spies. The 

 thought arose if there is to be any value in this change of 

 method of propagation , I must look to the character of the 

 trees from which I take King scions ; and I could not take 

 one from the trees on my own farm, for every tree was 

 weakened by disease, and I felt certain if I took the scions 



