62 FIELD NOTES OX APPLE CULTURE. 



\o leave enough small brush in the center of the tree to 

 screen the trunk and large branches from the hot sun. I 

 have often known trees to be seriously injured by sun- 

 scald, after having been severely pruned. A tree which 

 will contain seven or eight stubs under the old system of 

 grafting, will contain thirty or forty under the newer 

 system. Two objections wall at once be raised to this 

 method : as grafters charge by the piece, it is expensive ; 

 it makes the top too high, and renders the main branches 

 pole-like. To the first objection, I reply that no apple- 

 grower should hire a grafter ; he should be able to do the 

 grafting him:elf, or else his boys should do it. Every 

 farmer's boy should learn to graft. Few occupations give 

 more pleasure or yield a greater reward. To convert a 

 wild and thorny tree into one bearing large and delicious 

 fruit is a wonderful and fascinating process. The sec- 

 ond objection is a more serious one. I have seen the 

 larger branches of top-grafted trees entirely leafless for 

 seven or eight feet, and crowned with a bush. Such 

 trees are of course a nuisance, but they are due to a 

 bungling grafter, not to the plan of grafting many limbs 

 and small ones. There are enough side limbs on the 

 average tree which can be grafted to correct this diffi- 

 culty. If there should not be side limbs, some of the 

 sprouts which start after the tree is grafted may be en- 

 couraged and grafted in a year or two. One must not 

 expect an old tree to have as good a shape after grafting 

 as before. It can sometimes be secured, but not often. 

 Old and long-neglected trees which are to be grafted, 

 may often be given a preparatory pruning for two or 

 three years with profit. Unnecessary limbs can be better 



