26 FRUIT-GROWING 



come dominant and the original roots of the 

 seedling may entirely disappear or at least be- 

 come only rudimentary. They serve their 

 purpose in giving the tree a good start and 

 after that the tree grows, really, on its own 

 roots. If this were not true we would not be 

 able to differentiate between the root system 

 of various varieties of trees. As it is we know 

 that the Delicious, for instance, makes a splen- 

 did root system and that the Grimes has a very 

 weak one. Some expert nurserymen have 

 claimed that they could in many cases tell the 

 name of a variety simply by looking at the 

 roots. 



Another method of growing apple trees is to 

 plant the seedlings in the nursery row without 

 removing the tops. In early summer these 

 seedlings are "budded." The bud which is in- 

 serted lies dormant until the following spring 

 when the top above the bud is removed and new 

 growth forced through the inserted bud. This 

 practice, of course, produces a tree on seedling 

 roots. Some growers claim that such a tree is 

 more vigorous than one "on its own." Good 

 orchards have been grown from both sorts. 



Perhaps the best method of producing nurs- 

 ery stock is a combination of these two systems ; 

 that is, to bud a weak-rooted variety on a tree 

 of known root quality. It is in this way that 

 Grimes is almost always propagated to-day. 



