HOW AN APPLE-TREE IS MADE 49 



it is probable that no two trees would produce the same 

 kind of fruit. Some of the fruit might be summer apples, 

 some of it winter apples, some red, yellow or striped, 

 some of it flat, oblong or spherical, most of it sour but 

 perhaps some of it sweet. Probably every kind would 

 be inferior to the parent stock or to standard varieties, 

 although there is a fair chance that a superior kind might 

 originate from a field of such plants. 



Therefore, it is not the variety (that is, the top) that 

 is wanted in the raising of these numerous plants, but 

 merely the roots, on which desired varieties may be grown 

 by the clever art of graftage. Yet not even all the roots 

 may be wanted, for the growing plants may differ or 

 vary in their stature and vigor as well as in their fruit. 

 The discriminating grower, therefore, discards the weak 

 and puny treelings at the digging time; or if the weak 

 plants seem still to have promise, they may be allowed 

 to grow another year before they are dug for the grafting. 



This digging time is the autumn of the first year, when 

 the plants have grown one season. They are then to be 

 used as "stocks" on which to graft Baldwin, Winesap or 

 other varieties. The growing of these apple stocks is a 

 business by itself. Formerly, most of the stocks used in 

 North America were imported from France, where special 

 skill has been developed in the growing of them and 

 where the requisite labor is available. But now the stocks 

 are grown also in deep rich bottom lands of the Middle 

 West, as in Kansas, where, in the long seasons, a large 

 growth may be attained. 



The methods of graftage of the commercial apple-tree 

 are two — ^by cion-graf ting whereby a bit of wood with two 

 or three buds is inserted on the stock, by bud-grafting 



