53 



lent plan for performing this improvement is 

 recommended by Mr. Olmsted, of East Hart- 

 ford, Ct. He says, "I begin on the top, and 

 graft one-third each year, taking three years 

 to complete the entire heads of the trees. 

 Grafting the top first, gives the grafts there 

 the best possible chance, while the necessary 

 reduction of the top throws the sap into the 

 remaining side branches, fitting them well for 

 grafting the following year." The lower 

 branches are, in the same way, made ready 

 for the succeeding year. 



This is quite a profitable labor to be em- 

 ployed upon a healthy old tree, of which 

 the present fruit is not good. Twenty-eight 

 bushels of apples were gathered by Mr. O., 

 from a single tree, only six years from the 

 time the first scion was set in it in this way. 



In general, except where dwarfing is the 

 object, the nearer the point of union, between 

 graft and stock, is to the fruit-bearing parts of 

 the tree, the better; because seedling wood 

 has naturally more hardihood and vigor, than 

 the wood of a bud or scion usually possesses ; 

 this, at any rate, is the teaeliing of expe- 

 rience, if not of theory. 



