EXPERIENCE OF A PRACTICAL FARMER. 5 



de Jersey or Rostiezer, among pear-trees. So marked are their 

 peculiarities, however dijfferent the stocks these varieties are 

 grafted into, that the quality of the fruit (other things being 

 equal,) remains the same. It is also a well-established fact that 

 in nursery rows of seedling apple-trees, budded at one year old, 

 and taken up at four years of age, each row being budded with 

 a different kind of fruit, the roots of the several varieties will 

 be found to have taken different habits of growth — one variety 

 will have numerous small, fibrous roots, growing compactly, 

 while another row, of a different variety, will have a few large 

 and long roots, with few fibres, the varieties of fruit giving dis- 

 tinct habits of root, although the stocks may all differ from 

 each other. This proves conclusively that the stock exerts no 

 influence upon the variety of fruit engrafted into it, but that 

 the graft does have an influence in forming the habit of the 

 roots of the stock. The same observer may with propriety ask, 

 how is it that when two scions are engrafted into a limb of an 

 apple-tree, one will produce fruit, ripe in August, of yellow 

 color and sweet flavor, while the other will produce fruit, ripe 

 in January, of red color and acid flavor, both kinds nourished 

 by the same sap, supplied from the same roots ? Whence the 

 difference ? 



I think this question can be answered, by saying that the ma- 

 terial of the fruit is supplied principally from the soil through 

 the roots, while the quality of it is derived from the atmosphere 

 through the leaves. Hence the idea of improving the quality 

 of fruit by double working must be a fallacy. 



Let me say a word of the tendency of the sons of farmers to 

 leave the calling of their fathers. I knew a farmer who took 

 his son, a lad of fourteen, into the field to assist him in setting 

 out a young apple orchard. That boy obeyed his father's direc- 

 tions to the letter. If he told him to move a tree to the right 

 or left, to set it deeper or not so deep, he obeyed ; no more, no 

 less ; but his heart was not in his work. That father saw and 

 keenly felt his son's apathy. He said : " My son, I will listen 

 to any suggestions you may offer with regard to the setting of 

 these trees." From that moment the boy was changed. What ! 

 thought he, does my father wish for suggestions from me ? And 

 if so, should they not be made after careful thought and con- 

 sideration, that they may be worthy of his attention ? Thus he 



