110 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



per cent by root freezing. Since then I have been shortening the 

 root and lengthening the cion until I use about a two inch root to a 

 five or six inch cion, and I have no trouble if the variety is hardy. 

 Tender varieties I top-work in the branches of hardy trees three 

 years old. My reasons for grafting in the branches are that in the 

 fork of a tree is the tenderest place, and many of the less hardy va- 

 rieties crack open here after a hard freeze in the fall, and the next 

 summer they sun-scald where those cracked places are. (Barnard — 

 "Name one that won't sun-scald.") Well, I don't know that I can in 

 all cases. I believe I am the first man to advocate double-working. 

 Have good trees double-worked. I regard root-grafted trees as much 

 hardier and healthier as a rule than budded trees. I have thirty-three- 

 year-old trees that are bearing good crops of apples and they are root- 

 grafts. My worst cases of rotten-root are with trees grafted one foot 

 above ground. The experience of thirty-five years may not be good, 

 but try it. 



A Visitor — Twenty years is about the average life of an apple 

 tree. Why is it? Is there any remedy? I am a native of Vermont 

 and have seen apple trees 150 years old in that state, and many 100 

 years old that bear annually fifty bushels of apples. The apple orig- 

 inated on the shores of the Mediterranean sea and has been dissem- 

 inated to all parts of the Avorld almost. I think we will find the 

 cause of our short-lived trees not in root-grafting, nor in budding, 

 or top-working, but in the soil. In among the rocks in New Hamp- 

 shire the apple tree flourishes, and why ? Because the soil has all 

 the elements necessary for the growth and development of a tree — 

 loam, silica, and flint. Here and in Illinois the soil is a deep vege- 

 table mold, containing little or no silex and the tree dies for Avant of 

 it. I would suggest, as a partial remedy, placing a coarse gravel 

 about the roots ; this serves a double purpose — preventing the soil 

 from becoming baked around the roots and feeding the tree what it 

 needs. 



Carpenter — I think these old trees are but examples of survival 

 of the fittest. I was through eastern Pennsylvania last year and saw 

 many old trees. I asked an old gentleman about them and he said 

 those living were the sole survivors of thousands. If we could pre- 

 vent a thick sod perhaps our trees would live long, too. There is 

 stone there to prevent much thick sod, and beside the rains fall slowly 



