52 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE. 
to 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 will 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 himself, or else his boys should doit. 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-gratted 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 
