STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 75 



other trees bore a good class of fruit, coming as thev 

 did from seeds saved from the grafted fruit first pro- 

 duced. I saw little value ia such orchards. A few good 

 apples could be sold iu Bangor in winter ; but of the main 

 crop I could sometimes sell a load at harvest time, sixteen 

 bushels for a dollar. I tried the Bangor market for cider, and soon 

 tired of storing it in cellar to be hauled in winter. Our cider mill, 

 an accommodation affair, was crowded with work two months in 

 the season. It look me only two years to ripen a disgust for 

 poor apples, and to form the resolution to abate a nuisance, put a 

 new head on the trees or cut them away. I set about qualifyino' 

 for the first method. I had seen some successful work done in 

 changing the tops of well grown trees, and had seen other trees 

 assaulted and ruined b}^ ignorant wood-butchers trying to do the 

 same thing. I had seen my father change a top, working by his 

 slow method of setting scions and enclosing them in a ball of clay. 

 In later years, elsewhere, I had seen where wax had been used, and 

 evidence of rapid method of working. I went to Winthrop and 

 interviewed Moses B Sears, then extensively engaged in this work. 

 I found him on a winter day, genial and full to overflow at all 

 points of my inquiry. He had no seciets in his business. He took 

 me over the whole field — how and when to cut scions ; how to pre- 

 serve them ; how to make wax to use in cool or hot weather ; 

 talked about an outfit for the business ; about choice of trees, giv- 

 ing promise of returning the cost of the change ; how to cut the 

 tree, avoiding the removal of a branch, leaving a cut that could not 

 be covered by the subsequent growth ; how to locate the scions, 

 giving proper room to each, to utilize the whole top and do it with 

 the least possible number of scions. With this practical lesson 

 joined to my previous ol)servation, I took up the work with confi- 

 dence. I bought the fruit books then published in this country. I 

 obtained scions of varieties not then known here. I prepared for 

 and set about 2000 scions in the spring of 1841. Having good 

 success with these, I made a larger job the next 3'ear. This work 

 attracted attention, and I had calls to work for others. The de- 

 mand for grafting grew to a clamor, and I joined with my brother, 

 Luther, and we made large operations in nearly all the towns of 

 the county. After I left this intineranc3% my brother and James, 

 son of Cyrus Holmes, continued the work several years. 



While in this work I had opportunity to learn all there was 

 of local fruit history to that date. I worked and talked 



