FRUITS AND FRUIT GROWING 



develop a tree of choice fruit. By grafting or budding 

 from this natural selection a new variety is dissemi- 

 nated, and if especially choice it finds widespread 

 use. Within a few years the original Rhode Island 

 greening tree was still standing, just over the Con- 

 necticut line; not many years ago the original Baldwin 

 tree stood in its native town in Massachusetts, and 

 until within a few years there existed the original 

 northern spy tree in western New York. To-day the 

 spot is marked by a monument erected by the many 

 admirers of this choice variety. It may not be amiss to 

 relate here the tradition that the seed from which this 

 choice apple was developed was taken to western New 

 York from the Holmes farm in Salisbury, Connecticut. 

 A few years before his death the owner of this farm 

 told the writer that he still had on his farm a tree the 

 fruit of which closely resembled the northern spy. At 

 any rate, authentic records of the origin of this choice 

 variety show that the seed was taken from Salisbury, 

 Connecticut, to western New York. 



Grafting and budding, as means of propagating fruit 

 trees, were known long before the settlement of this 

 country — grafting at least having been practised by the 

 Romans. The method of root grafting of the small 

 seedlings is probably of comparatively recent origin, as 

 most of the older trees show evidence of having been 

 top-grafted quite a distance above the ground. This is 



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