34 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Answer. It is better to be done before it leaves out. I . 

 have succeeded well in that way, and have seen a great many 

 handsome trees set out with large tops and they never became 

 well established and growing on account of this very thing ; 

 and when I have grafted them, I have found them to be 

 black-hearted ; whereas if they had been properly cut back 

 and allowed to go until the next year, it would have been 

 much better. I think it is well to cut about six inches above 

 where you intend to graft, and let it go one year. 



Mr. Pike. I would ask whether you set the scions the 

 first year ? 



Answer. I have succeeded well in that way, and I can 

 show you handsome trees done in that way. 



Mr. Foster. In regard to this sunscald, I made up my 

 mind years ago that it was owing to the freezing and thawing 

 of the tree in the winter. I have worked in orchards of 18 

 to 20 acres, and I have found the tops of trees where they 

 came to the sun that the bark would crack open. I have 

 noticed it frequently in the woods, on the side of the tree 

 facing the sun sometimes two or three feet would be dead, 

 and I have thought it was owing to the sap starting and 

 freezing in the winter and killing the bark in that way. 



Mr. Wheeler of Winthrop. I have had some experience 

 in grafting ; have done considerable of it some years ; have 

 set 30,000 scions in one year. I have always made it a point 

 to go into a tree and examine and look it over and see how 

 to shape the top. I think that is one of the first things 

 necessary. I always want scions that I know to be good, 

 and in grafting large trees I leave some of the smaller limbs 

 between the scions and the stocks, to help carry the sap to 

 the scions. I have noticed failures Avhere the trees have been 

 cut back too much, and in many cases complete failures. 

 There has been something said here, I think, in regard to 

 cutting the whole top of small trees. I think the better way 

 is to get trees large enough to graft into the branches. I 

 think there is danger of forcing trees too much before they 

 are set out. Within the past four years I have lost two 



