Root-grafted versus Stock-grafted Fruit Trees. 245 



with Mr. P. ; there are some sorts which will, undoubtedly, 

 succeed very well root-grafted, but take the average, and they 

 will fail. We are only surprised that nearly one-half of the 

 nurserymen of the West should have the disinterestedness to 

 vote against root-grafting. This act does them credit. We 

 honor them for so prompt an expression of their opinion. If 

 there is a place on the face of the globe where root-grafted 

 trees will do well, it is in Illinois ; and the truth of Mr. Wil- 

 liams's expression cannot be shaken, by saying that it is the 

 "abuse of root-grafting" in the West, (as if our western 

 friends were ignoramuses,) which prevents the success of the 

 trees, and that New York root-grafting is quite another thing ! 



Mr. Barry says that we shall find "no proofs" to suit us in 

 Western New York. He thinks we have heretofore "spoken 

 very favorably of the orchards of New York." We certainly 

 have — finer we never saw ; but the orchards we refer to, were 

 • set out years before /-oo^-grafting was ever practised. Or- 

 chards, planted thirty years ago, were but few of them set 

 with root-grafted trees. But the explanation of the superior- 

 ity of stock-grafted trees is what Mr. Barry calls for. He 

 shall have it. 



First, let us say a few words in regard to the means we 

 have had of making up our opinion. In 1840 we commenced 

 purchasing apple trees, with a view to forming a collection of 

 every variety in the country. We continued to buy, and are 

 still buying when we can get a new kind, and we now have 

 in bearing upwards of one hundred sorts, and about tioo hun- 

 dred more, which, to use a common phrase, promise well. 

 We had trees from various parts of Western New York and 

 Ohio ; nearly all of them were root-grafted ; the others, from 

 our own State and from New Jersey, were stock-budded or 

 grafted, but mostly budded, and they now form our finest 

 trees ; but of the western ones, about one-half of them look, 

 to this day, in poor condition, not yet able to stand up straight 

 without a stake, and if that is taken away some of them will 

 fall over almost of their own weight. Buds taken from trees 

 the first year after receiving them, and put into good stocks, 

 are three times as large in five years. In fact, some of the 



