1900.] essays. H7 



while of tho pear that is not true. It is surprising under what 

 adverse circumstances apple trees will thrive, as in low, swampy 

 land. Mr. Foster, in Tatnuck, grafted some apple trees in low, 

 wet ground, and by the help of pruning well he produced ex- 

 cellent fruit. Mr. Rich related his experience with Clapp's 

 Favorite when it first came out. He grafted it on a Bartlett 

 and though the tree blossomed every year it did not produce 

 fruit. He went to a nursery and got fourteen Vicar trees of 

 healthy growth, without paying attention to any other detail, 

 and planted them. When they were growing well he grafted 

 them, and in four years got crops. Mr. Rich advised anyone 

 trying to set out an orchard to get thrifty stock and then graft, 

 so that he can get a crop in ten years instead of having to wait 

 twenty years for fruit. 



Mr. Wheeler asked if the fruit of trees taking twenty years 

 to mature isn't just as good as the grafted fruit. Mr. Rich said 

 in his experience the seedling trees do not produce as large fruit 

 nor as much of it as the grafted. 



Mr. Marble. — " I suppose, Mr. Wheeler, that this is thresh- 

 ing over old straw, but sometimes it pays with a few grains of 

 wheat. When I was a boy it was the saying that you can set 

 out apple trees for your children, but plums and pears for your 

 grandchildren. Of late years this is changed, and I know it is 

 certain you can reduce the time on a pear tree one-half by graft- 

 ing, and sometimes you can get the grafted pears in one-third 

 the time necessary for a seedling to develop to bearing. Mr. 

 Wheeler must remember that new people are coming up and 

 wanting to know about these things. It has been said in some 

 quarters that the younger element would flock to hear a dis- 

 cussion of budding and grafting. Had I known it was an 

 audience all consisting of experts I was to address, I would have 

 left out the elementary consideration of the subject. If we can 

 get some definite knowledge of the laws of affinities of species, 

 we may get to be as sure of peach tree grafting as we are of 

 pears. This cannot be done by sitting down and wearing out 

 our elbows watching the trees grow. We have got to dig into 

 the subject and study it." 



