234 The Principles of Fruit-growing. 



safer and more reliable ; but persons who are will- 

 ing and competent to give the extra care which 

 the dwarfs need, and who have access to extra 

 good markets, may generally grow the dwarfs with 

 profit.* 



The parentage of the cion may affect //x value. 

 "It is probable that many trees fail to bear because 

 propagated from unproductive trees. We know that 

 no two trees in any orchard are alike, either in the 

 amount of fruit which they bear or in their vigor 

 and habit of growth. Some are uniformly productive, 

 and some are uniformly unproductive. We know, 

 too, that cions or buds tend to reproduce the char- 

 acters of the tree from which they are taken. A 

 gardener would never think of taking cuttings from 

 a rose bush, or chrysanthemum, or a carnation, 

 which does not bear flowers. Why should a fruit- 

 grower take cions from a tree which he knows to 

 be unprofitable ? 



"The indiscriminate cutting of cious is too 

 clumsy and inexact a practice for these days, when 

 we are trying to introduce scientific methods into 

 our farming. I am convinced that some trees can- 

 not be made to bear by any amount of treatment. 

 They are not the bearing kind. It is not every 

 mare which will breed or every hen which will lay 

 a hatfull of eggs. In my own practice, I am buy- 

 ing the best nursery -grown stock of apples (mostly 



'Further remarks apon dwarf trees may be fouiid in Nursery- Book, 3d 

 ed., and in Loderoan's "Dwarf Apples," Bull. 116, Cornell Exp. Sta. 



