old Trees Made Young 



KAT kind of a tree is that?'' asks a neighbor^ as he 



speak of that as a tree; that is a concentrated^ double- 

 barreled prune experiment. If I were to name all the vari- 

 eties of iruit that are growing on the branches from that 

 single trunks it would sound like reciting the names from 

 a nursery catalogue. Nearly all my important experiments 

 in developing a particular variety of cherry^ plum^ peachy 

 apple^ almond^ nectarine^ quince^ apricot, nut^ or timber tree 

 are made,, at one stage or another, in these tree colonies." 



Of course^ the average person who inspects my farms has 

 no thought of becoming an experimenter on a large scale 

 and there would be no occasion to practice multiple grafting 

 and regrafting on any such scale as that employed at the 

 Gold Ridge farm. But I call particular attention to this 

 matter of fruit-tree grafting, because there is a lesson in it 

 not merely for the commercial grower of fruity but for tens 

 of thousands of persons scattered across the length and 

 breadth of the country who have in their gardens a few 

 fruit trees^ at present of no apparent value^ that might be 

 made to bear good fruit in abundance. 



Moreover^ there are other thousands who have on their 

 farms neglected orchards^ run riot with weeds and bringing 

 no monetary return whatever^ which might be made the 

 most productive and valuable portions of the entire acreage. 

 And in each case the grafting of good varieties of fruit on 

 the old and otherwise worthless stock is the key to the 

 entire situation. 



Fortunately the facts of the situation are now being 

 called to the attention of the general public^ in particular 

 by the workers at the agricultural experiment stations. 

 Bulletins are being issued that call attention to the possi- 

 bilities of rejuvenating old orchards^ and in many regions 

 results of this work are being manifested in the restoration 

 of these abandoned orchards. In one county in Ohio, in a 

 recent season^ 117 rejuvenated orchards added more than 

 fifty thousand bushels to the apple crop. '*In several 

 cases/' says the Ohio report^ net profit of $400 per acre 

 has been secured from an abandoned orchard." The report 



''Why^ it is hardly fair to 



9 



