ON SPECIFIC NEEDS 



cannot be expected to supply similar products. 

 But in point of fact it is well within the possi- 

 bilities to produce good orchard fruits wherever 

 the trees exist that produce any fruit at all. Con- 

 ditions of soil and climate cannot, of course, be 

 ignored. One cannot grow oranges in Canada or 

 grapefruit in New England — as yet. But if you 

 have apple trees or pears or plums or cherries that 

 bear fruit, it is a matter of your own choice 

 whether they shall bear good fruit or bad. 



All that is necessary is that you should send 

 to some reputable nurseryman or orchardist and 

 secure cions of good variety for* grafting on your 

 trees. 



All apple trees are closely related, the culti- 

 vated varieties being without exception of mixed 

 strains. The same is true of pears and plums and 

 cherries. In each case you may graft on your 

 native stock cions of any variety of the same 

 species, or a dozen or a score of different vari- 

 eties, and, if the work is done properly and at the 

 right season, the new twigs vdll soon become a 

 part of the old tree as regards vitality and capacity 

 for growth and fruiting; but — as we have learned 

 in earlier chapters — they will retain their inherent 

 hereditary tendencies as to quality of fruit. 



Growing side by side, on the same tree, you 

 may have summer apples and winter apples, sweet 



[19] 



