the od 1 yeaTS, as apples sold last year for four dollars and fifty cents 

 a barrel, and this year from seventy-five cents to one dolhir, it would 

 make considerable difference in the returns from an orchard, whether 

 the trees bear the even or odd years. I have in mind a man wlio has 

 quite a large orchard that bears the odd years : he received for his 

 fruit for tlie seasons of '77 and '75 from three dolhirs and seventy-five 

 cents to four dollars per barrel ; for '73, '71 and '69, from five to six 

 dollars. 



There are two ways by Avhich the bearing years of an apple tree can 

 be changed. One i^ by taking scions from trees bearing the odd years, 

 and only the odd years, and grafting with them. I know two men 

 wlio have practiced this method. One of them says they come true 

 nearly every time, nearly eighty per cent, : the other says that some- 

 times they would come true nearly every time, then again very few 

 Avould come true, but said that by manuring the trees well the even 

 years, he believed they could be entirely changed. This would be 

 A^'orth trying, as many orchards scattered up and down this valley con- 

 tain about as many varieties as they do trees, (perhaps more) and 

 more than half of them are good for nothing but cider. If such trees 

 w&i'e grafted over Avith Roxbury Russets or odd year Baldwins, they 

 ■vifotfld become more profitable if they bore the even years than to let 

 tlfenif 'remain as they now are. In top grafting a tree of any consid- 

 erab-te size, all of the limbs should not be cut away, but enough left 

 to sharle the trunk and branches destined to remain ; if not, the hot sun 

 dwritig summers will so scorch the south side of the trunk and upper 

 sides of 'the branches that the bark will be killed, and large bare places 

 w'tW bfe scifen without any hark. After the grafts have l;cgun to grow 

 th^e I'emaitliiig limbs should be cut away from time to time sufficient 

 to give the grafts I'oom to grow Avithout being crowded. Grafting 

 c'OnsistS^^^f taking a branch or scion from one tree and putting it into 

 anot her W'tihe same so that it will grow. The principal things to be 

 tMi'4ti/fetOiaccaunt are these : The grafts should b3 of the last season's 

 groAtth." 1^1 cutting the scion care should betaken (to make the cut 

 true ami with' a single stroke of the knife, as it Avill be much easier to 

 fi^t'ifcliefsciott'tiO' the stock than if cut irregularly. In fitting the scion 

 sea' that tlie- inner bark of the scion comes in contact with the inner 

 ba'rk of the stock, as it is here that all growth takes place and also 

 A'?tei^6-the; uniioui'ii formed. A good grafting Avax can be made from 

 el tlftei- df the following propoi-tions : BeesAvax three parts, resin three 



