THE CANADIAN HORTICULTDRIST. 



157 



variety ; the sti'onger the better, such 

 as King of Tompkins County, Goklen 

 Russet, Northern Spy, Wealthy, Red 

 Astrachan, St. Lawrence, FaHawater, 

 Colvert, and Twenty-Ounce apples, etc. 

 The Baldwin, Greening, E. Spitzenbui-g, 

 Hubbardtson's Nonsuch, Gravenstein ; 

 these varieties are generally injured 

 -when as cold a winter as the past one 

 follows after grafting, and are often lost. 

 You can sometimes save the tree by let- 

 ting the stock sprout out again, and i-e- 

 graft another year. There isstill another 

 class of hardy fruit, but very difficult 

 to work successfully, such as Pewaukee, 

 Tetofsky, Mann, Grime's Golden, Fill 

 Basket, and Beauty of Kent ; these do 

 not unite well with the stock of older 

 trees, and have proved worthless. 

 Location has much to do with this, as 

 in some favored sections these same 

 varieties do fairly, and are valued 

 somewhat, but to a very large e.xtent 

 where it is as cold as with me persons 

 should use the hardy anil well tried sorts. 

 I think our Society should be very 

 careful indeed, and not send out any 

 fruits that are not worthy of cultivation 

 (as it is generally taken that if the 

 Society send out fruit, it must be of 

 the very best), and which may bring 

 disappointment ; for instance, the Mann 

 apple : I do not know on whose re- 

 commendation, or where its particular 

 merit lies, or to what particular por- 

 tion of the globe it best adapts itself. 

 With me it has proved itself barren 

 and wortliless. I set seventy-tive trees 

 and top-grafted twenty more ; it does 

 not succeed well as a top-grafted tree, 

 being too slow in gi'owth, and puny. 

 Some of my top-grafted trees were 

 large, fifteen feet across the limbs, and 

 as high ; and, to speak safely, I have 

 not grown one dozen specimens in the 

 past live years, all told, of this variety. 

 The Duchess, which is everywhere 

 esteemed for its great productiveness 

 and fine appearance, and good cooking 



quality, works somewhat similar, but 

 ivorse, for it does not unite and grow 

 readily as a top graft ; appearing foreign 

 in its nature, similar to the red and 

 yellow Siberian crabs. I find it almost 

 impossible to graft this variety to make 

 a complete success of it ; the stock 

 suckers so badly or sprouts out, and 

 the grafts grow so slowly, they take up 

 so small a i)ortion of the sap, and to 

 remove the sprouts continually ai)pears 

 to weaken the stock, and the whole 

 finally becomes unhealthy, and dies 

 away. There is no trouble to have the 

 grafts live the first and second year ; 

 to cut too closely spoils your tree, and 

 to leave original branches to consume 

 the sap, robs the grafts that they soon 

 die away. I have spoiled and cut 

 down twenty-live healthy trees in try- 

 ing to work the Duchess upon them, 

 and have had very small success. 



The only successful way is to whip- 

 graft, or bud in small stock at the 

 ground, or a little below, and let both 

 stock and graft advance together ; this 

 method has worked nicely. They are 

 subject then to throw up very many 

 sprouts from the stock and become like 

 a large brush heap. To remedy this 

 (if pasture is good), sheep can run 

 among the trees and eat off idl leaves as 

 they foi-in ; for they are very fond of 

 apple leaves, usincr them in prefei-ence 

 to the clover. Have used the sheep 

 for years, without losing a tree by 

 having the bark gnawed off. They and 

 pigs run together admirably. Have 

 made a practice for some time of breaking 

 up the orchards, and seeding to oats and 

 clover. As soon as the oats are high 

 enough — say ten inches — turn the sheep 

 into them, and feed off. Next summer 

 the clover will give the feed, tlien 

 break and seed as before ; but take no 

 crop from the ground. The ground is 

 key)t in good condition : always soft 

 and mellow. 



Grapes and red raspberries have 



